TABS - Life With The Penguins: 4Ever Or Never
by Joshpro8423
Summary: The gang's decision to stay was the best they ever made. But, what happens if none this ever happened, ever. The five will have to find a way to fix the past that has been altered by an unknown enemy. Will they be able to or will they be trapped in this alternate universe, forever?
1. Introduction

_**Life With The Penguins:**_  
_**4Ever Or Never**_

**Some Info:**  
Yo! This is the Trilogy breaker of the whole series! This is part four of _Life With The Penguins!_ And this story will be based on _Back to the Future_, and will contain the most chapters in the whole series so far! So go on, read the summary and get started! But please do read the last three **FIRST** if you haven't! However, you may skip part 3; it only helps this make more sense.

**Summary:**  
The gang's decision to stay was the best they ever made. But, what happens if none this ever happened, ever. The five will have to find a way to fix the past that has been altered by an unknown enemy. Will they be able to or will they be trapped in this alternate universe, forever? Read on to find out!

**Disclaimer:**  
I do not own _The Penguins of Madagascar._ It belongs to _Tom McGrath_, _Eric Daniels_, _Dreamworks Animation_ and _Nickelodeon_. I only own my OCs (i.e. Josh Everett, Nick Everett, etc.)

_A/N: Hey y'all! I'm back with part 4 of the TABS-LWTPS and I am posting this early only because I realise that part 3 is literally just a filler and it will only help make this have more sense, but other than that I can release this earlier. Oh, part 3 will now be like a community story, where I get ideas from y'all and I'll add them in, for variety. So, enjoy this early release!_

**Introduction:**  
_An Unexpected Appearance_

We were all sitting round the campfire that night. Everyone was eager to listen to stories, especially the one I was going to tell. It was Christmas Eve and the zoo was closed, so we could start the campfire on the penguins' island.

"So, what was the story you wanted to tell us Josh?" asked Private. "Well, let's start at the beginning, shall we? It started off this morning, when we were all busy preparing the zoo for the Christmas party tonight..."

_Flashback POV (Normal POV!):_  
"YAY! It's Christmas morning!" Private yelled as he jumped out of his bunk. We all got up from our bunks as well. "I see someone is excited..." Gem giggled as he ran round the place like a maniac.

"Merry Christmas sweetie..." She gave Rico a kiss and hugged. It has been four years since we decided to stay, which translates to two in our dimension. It was a pretty lovely thing that Gem, Ash and Skipper had a triple marriage in a single day, right on the same day we decided to stay. They all had decided to have kids a few years ago.

"Hey, let's wake the kids..." Kowalski said. We sneaked to the door leading to the kids' room. Rico had successfully carved out another room, right beside where the telly was. He built it pretty fast; in just about two hours the day the other kids were born. Emmy had her own bunk above ours.

"Merry Christmas!" Private yelled as we swung open the door. One by one, Chris, Amy, Carl and Brandon awoke from their slumber and they all jumped out from their bunks. Oh, since you guys don't know who's who, then...

Chris' full name is Christopher Jackson. He is a Classified Penguin (All the names just mentioned are all penguins, as they are in the penguin habitat, duh...) just like his dad, Skipper. He is now 8 years old (Classified Penguin years is two in one normal year, of this dimension) and he's got all his swimming feathers now. He is also slightly taller than Private...

_Campfire POV:_  
"Wait, we already know who's who, so why are you still saying it?" Skipper asked, interrupting my story. "Well, I'm recording the whole thing, for future use..." I said as I held up a tape recorder. "Oh, you're making a voice log, just like what I do. Sorry, carry on..." I put it back down and continued...

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
As I was saying, He has a sister with the same age named Penelope Summers, Penny for short. She on the other hand is an Asian Otter. She lives with her mom, Marlene, in the otter habitat. Now, let's go on to the rest.

Next is Amy. Her full name is Amelia Carter. She is the daughter of Private and Ashley. She is now 7 years old and has most of swimming feathers now, but her plummage is still quite thin. She has an older brother named Logan Goodwin, Logan for short, and he is an American Badger. He lives with his mom, Ashley, in the Badger habitat.

Carl's full name is Carlos Dela Santos. He is a Classified Penguin as well and he is now 7 years old. His parents are Rico and Gem. He has grown out of his down feathers early and has a full set of swimming feathers. He has a brother with the same age named Brandon.

Brandon's full name is Brandon Jones. He as well is a Classified Penguin and he has also outgrown his down feathers and now has a healthy set of swimming feathers. His parents are also Rico and Gem.

Anyway, the five of them ran and hugged their parents. "Merry Christmas!" they yelled at the same time. We all ate some breakfast around the now double-sized table. After, we headed outside so that we could begin prepping up tonight's party.

"Permission to go and wake Penny and mom, dad..." Chris asked his dad, Skipper.

"May I go and wake mom and sis up dad?" Emmy asked her dad, Kowalski.

"Daddy, can I go over to mom's place?" Amy asked her dad, Private, with her extremely similar British accent.

"Hey mom, dad. Can we please help set up the fireworks? We promise we won't mess up..." Carl and Brandon asked their parents Rico and Gem in unison.

We all nodded and they happily went to where they wanted to go, except Carl and Brandon, who were following Rico so as to help set up the fireworks. "So, since it's just us now, let's get decorating!" Nick said.

It was now late afternoon and most of the zoo looks ready for a hangover or something. Christmas light draped over the fences and there was a Christmas tree in front of the reptile house. The place was so lively. We were all now taking a break, so we all decided to play with the kids and the young adults in the snowy park.

"Pass it over here!" yelled Logan. Gem passed the ball to him and he continued dribbling it with his feet. We were playing soccer, or how they like to call it, football. "Uncle J! Catch!" He kicked the ball over to me. All of them call Nick, Aunty N, and me, Uncle J. They were good, nonetheless.

As he passed it, I immediately kicked it towards the goal. Kate was the best goal keeper in the game. So, it wouldn't surprise me if I missed. "I got it! Better luck next time Uncle J..." We all shook flippers and paws as Ernie's expertise says that after a game of football, soccer, whatever, all the players must shake hands, well, flippers and paws in this case.

"Up for one more round?" asked Kate. We looked at the four dads and they nodded. "I don't see why not..." Skipper replied. We all got into position and resumed...

_Campfire POV:_  
"Wait, isn't that when you fail so bad cause someone called you?" Kate claimed. I glared at her. "You want to continue the story for me?" I joked a bit harshly. She sat back down, slightly embarrassed. "Good..."

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
We started up another round, and we were tied down 3 to 3. "Logan! I'm open! I'm open!" I yelled. As he passed it to me, I hear something call my name. But it wasn't one of players. It sounded too familiar to be anyone else.

_"Pssst! Josh! Over here!"_ It said. I snapped out of my thoughts when I tripped over the ball, falling over and bumping into Emmy. "Whoa! You guys ok?!" We all got up and dusted off the dirt. "Yeah, we'll live..." Emmy joked. _"Pssst! Josh!"_ This time when I heard it, it shocked me.

Behind the one of the trees nearest to the zoo, peeked out a black and white figure. And the voice was all too familiar. It sounded like...me. I called Nick, Gem, Ash and Ernie to follow me. "You guys just...uh...pack up. We'll meet you back in the zoo later. I need to check something out..."

Skipper gave us permission and we headed over to it. "Uh, what is it that you want us to check?" There was nobody there. "Huh, I could have sworn I heard..." Suddenly, something fell from the tree and landed on Nick. "O...M...G..." Gem said.

_Campfire POV:_  
"Hello pen-gu-wins!" We looked towards the gate and there stood four figures. "Blowy! Yo! Sup dude!" Ernie ran to him and high fived.

"Please stop calling me that..." Ernie just shrugged. "So, what did we miss?" asked Hans, Clemson and Savio. "Oh, just telling stories. Come, join us..." I replied. They all settled down and I continued...

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
Moving on, it was another penguin. But what shocked us was when he stood up and faced us. "Are you...me?" I asked. "Yup. You from an alternate dimension...and time..." He was definitely me, as he had my face and my exact voice.

"Now, listen. I don't have much time, so here's the summary. When time changes, look for the Resistance. Join them and ask them to help you stop Parker before he..." A sudden ringing started. "Oh, no. I can't stay any longer. I have to go now!"

"Wait! What Resistance!? And Parker?" He took out some remote looking device and pressed a button. "Just remember what I said..." He faded away as he said that. "Well, that's something you don't see everyday..." Gem, Nick and Ash said. I paced up and down, thinking.

"What did he, me, mean about _Join the Resistance_? And Parker? What about him?" The others were confused as well. "Who's Parker?" they asked. "A platypus. I've only seen him in pictures back in our dimension but I don't know anything about him, other than he possibly being evil..." So, we just shrugged it off and head back to the zoo.

Now this is when things go wrong. "Hey guys! We're back!" Nick greeted the penguins, who were just sitting on the penguins' island. But no response was heard. "Uh, hello? I said we're...OMG!"

When we gazed upon the rookery, they seemed to be in freeze frame. They weren't moving an inch and no breath or pulse could be found. We checked the rest out and they were all in this same state. The whole world seemed to be frozen.

"What's happened to everyone?" Then, something horribly wrong happens. The sky first turned to a dark, slightly red colour. Then the ambience become increasingly ominous as the walls, floors and surfaces of objects and buildings peeled away, just like what happens in Silent Hill when you hear the siren wailing.

"Look! They're disappearing!" We gazed over and saw all the frozen figures change into an ash and blow away with the wind. A minute later, everything just stopped. The place was now dead quiet...

_Campfire POV:_  
"Aah! This story is scary!" yelped Private, along with the youngest of the kids. "Come on, Private. The story's not real...Please tell me it's not real..." said Kowalski, trying to comfort them. "Actually, it is. This really happened..." Everybody gasped in disbelief.

"How can this possibly be? We're still here, so that's impossible!" Skipper claimed. "Impossibility is just a possibility, and you'll understand more when you hear the rest of the story. Shall we continue?" Dozens of heads nodded, eager to know why.

_A/N: Yeah, I decided the whole story to be in a flashback POV to spice things up a bit, and the ones at the campfire will occasionally ask questions to disturb me, and to clarify some doubts. So, what happens next? Can't tell you, just be patient!_


	2. Chapter 1

_A/N: What up everybody! We are back with another chapter of part 4 and this one is plain hard to write, literally. It almost took me forever to write this. Anyway, it is now up and running so please, READ ON!_

**Chapter 1:**  
_Silent Hill Much?_

Where were we? Oh yeah, the creepy ambience and the silent hill moment. Well, we just stood in awe as everything was all...dead looking. The streets and buildings were off-the-charts wrecked, the sky was an ominous reddish colour, even the zoo we now stood in was a wreck. The only noises we could hear was silence.

"What just happened! Why is everything all...silent hilly?!" yelled the three girls. Everywhere we looked was like we were in a nightmare. "I'm not sure..." I replied. We went around the habitats but in each one we looked, nobody was there. Not even the lemurs. "Where did everyone go?"

Suddenly, we heard something coming in our direction. All we heard were footstep-like clanking of metal. "Hey, does that sound like a..." Nick sentence was completed when a metallic bug-like robot appeared from the corner. "A Robo-Assualt Bug!?" Nick exclaimed. It turned to face us and it lunged at us. "Duck!" We jumped out of the way, avoiding the pounce.

"Oh no you don't..." I regurgitated a sledgehammer and slammed it right on the machine. "Whoa! Since when could you do that?" Ernie asked. "Like, a few days ago, from Rico. It's pretty easy to be honest. Just takes practice, and guts, literally..." We high fived with the victory, but then we heard somebody scream. A familiar scream.

"Guys! Over there!" Gem exclaimed, pointing towards the entrance of the zoo. At an instant, a small brown figure that seems to be carrying some fish ran through the gaps, screaming like a maniac. Then, another Robo-Assualt Bug appeared behind the figure. "It's...Marlene?"

We could clearly see it was Marlene as she ran around trying to get away from the robot bug. "Guys, behind this wall. Ernie, sledgehammer on my mark..." We put our backs against the wall and waited. "AAAAAAHHHHHH!" At the right time, I put out my flipper and grabbed her, covering her mouth. "Now!" Ernie jumped in the air, with the sledgehammer in hand...er...paw, and slammed it smack on the robot's head.

I let her go and she started punching me, and everyone else. "Aah! Get away from me! Aah!" she screamed. "Marlene! Marlene! MARLENE!" I yelled. "Calm down! It's alright now. It's gone..." She put down her fists and eyed us suspiciously, making her way to the fish she dropped. In a blink of an eye, she grabbed them and ran straight for the penguin HQ.

"Wait, Marlene!" yelled Ash and Gem as she disappeared down the fishbowl entrance. We all ran after her but the fishbowl was locked in place. For some reason, the water in the pool was drained. "Marlene! Open up! We're not gonna hurt you!" Nick tried. No response.

"Wait, let me think. Uh...nope, Rico's code is too hard to say...um...I don't know Skipper's nor Kowalski's, so..." I switched to my voice impression of Private. "Authorization, Private Riley Goodwin. Password, VII, VI, MCMXCVIII. Operation, Disable Security..." I said. _"Password accepted. Disabling security. Welcome, Private..."_ a voice said.

_Campfire POV:_  
"Hey! You just told everyone Private's classified access codes!" yelled Skipper. I just glared. "Skipper, Skipper, Skipper. There was a REASON why I had to use Private's voice..." He thought about it and looked at Private. "Well, that is true. Kowalski made it so..."

Everyone changed their stare to Kowalski. "Yup. It has to be the original person's voice, or, in his case, extremely similar..." Kowalski answered. "Well, it's also good that you don't know mine nor Kowalski's..." Skipper claimed. "Whatever. Ok, where was I at? Oh yeah..." I continued.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
"You never fail to surprise me..." claimed Nick." Yeah, but what's with all the V's, I's, M's, X's and C's for?" asked Gem and Ash in unison. "You guys really got to stop doing that. You're freaking me out!" Ernie said. "Two words, Roman Numerals. Also, that was Private's birthdate..." I said.

We all jumped down into the HQ and saw the unbelievable. Everything looked like a mess. There were about a billion cobwebs all over the walls, ceiling and bunks, the telly was all smashed, the kids' room was missing and Kowalski's lab was empty. It was like a fallout cause all this.

"Where is everyone?" asked Ernie. We looked all over but there was no sign of Marlene. But when my gaze landed on the clock, it was still moving, and that meant one thing. I went over to it and pulled the hands down to the number six. Then a control panel in the wall showed. I head to it and pressed in Kowalski's colour passcode. An elevator then appeared.

"Yep, still remember..." I said. We all got in and went to every floor, starting from one. "Nope, nope, nope, here it...uh...nope..." I repeated as we browsed through the floors. Each one was empty, and I was sure each one had something crazy in it. I reached level twelve. "That's it..." said Ash." Nope, not yet. Still got hidden level number thirteen..." I corrected.

I pressed the bottom panel, revealing the number thirteen. I pressed it and when it opened, all the inventions were gone. It was empty. We were about to leave when we heard voices. "What was that?" Gem asked. We made our way out the elevator and looked around. Even in this place, it looked like silent hill. It was so dank, the walls and floors looked a thousand years old and the smell of fish permeated the air.

_"Don't worry. I'll always take care of you._.." we heard the voice say. This voice was definitely Marlene's. We looked around the corner where the ITD was supposed to be and saw what looked like a little campsite. There was a tent setup beside a whole mess of sardine cans and empty water bottles everywhere. The smell could literally burn your eyes off.

We crept to the tent slowly, maneuvering around the mess like an obstacle course. I was about to open the tent, when someone stopped us. "Put them up!" We all raised our flippers and paws and turned around slowly. It was Marlene. Oh, how awful she looked. Her fur was all messy, like she forgot to brush it everyday, she had near-bloodshot eyes and her voice sounded like she hadn't had sleep for days.

She was pointing some sort of gun at us. I identified it as Kowalski's freeze ray. "Marlene. What happened to you? Where is everyone else?" Nick asked. She looked at us with the look of distrust. "Now, let me ask you. Who are YOU and what are you doing here!?" she asked. We all then heard the zipper on the tent open. "What's going on?" another voice said.

We looked behind to see an extremely broken down Private. His plummage was very messy as well, his eye's looked bloodshot and swollen, most likely due to crying, and he too sounded like he had insomnia. "Private! Get back in there! It's not safe!" Marlene yelled at the little penguin. He waddled all around us, examining us just as Kowalski would.

"I think they're not a threat..." he then claimed. Marlene lowered the freeze ray a little. This was pretty tense. "How are you sure?" she asked. He simply said that he knew. She put down the freeze ray and went over to Private. "Ok...But if you guys try to do anything funny..." We just nodded. "What happened here?" Ash tried asking again. She seemed to be asking Private, which wasn't weird as they were married.

"Well, the zoo was overrun by Blowhole's bug robot thingies..." he replied. "Can you tell us what happened?" asked Gem this time. Marlene joined in, splitting the little fish they had with us. "No thank you..." we all said, giving them back the fish. "You two need it more than us..." We put the fish back in Marlene's paws. "Are you sure?" she asked full of concern. Even in this state, she was still her caring self.

"Yes, very. We have our own..." She gave me a signal and I regurgitated a cooler bag. "Hey, you have the same ability that Rico has!" Private mentioned. I nodded. "Yeah, he taught me how..." Upon hearing this, Marlene pulled Private back. "So you are from the Resistance!" She picked up a fish and held it up like a sword, just like Skipper would. "Whoa! We are not from the...wait. Did you say Resistance?" She nodded carefully, pointing the fish at us.

I signalled the four of them to make a discussion circle (That's what I call it). "Remember that the future...me...said we should join the Resistance?" They nodded. "Well, we need to ask them where they are in order to stop Parker, whom we have no idea is like..." They all agreed and we broke up the circle. "Ok, can you tell us more about this...Resistance and where we can find them..." I asked Marlene.

"So, you're not...from the Resistance?" We all nodded. "We are not, but...a certain somebody told us we needed to join them in order to fix whatever's happening, in order to stop..." I paused, unsure whether I should continue. I took a deep breath and said, "Parker..." The two looked as confused as ever.

"Parker? Who's Parker?" asked Private. We told him that we had no idea either, other than him being a platypus, an evil one. Then Nick popped up the question of the century. "By the way, where's the rest of the team?" Marlene and Private looked at each other. "Well, Kowalski and Rico joined the Resistance..." answered Private. Then, we all had the same question in mind.

"Where's Skipper then?" we all asked in unison. The two looked down, making it seem something terrible has happened. At this point, we were afraid to ask anymore questions, afraid they may go crazy. But, they answered still, and the answer was not one we expected. "Skipper's...dead..." they both answered, breaking into tears.

_A/N: Oh no! Is this true? What happened? Well I guess you'll have to wait for the next chapter of the story! Till then, R&R!_


	3. Chapter 2

_A/N: Hello everyone! We're back with another crazy chapter of this crazy story! And it seems that everytime somebody dies, people review. And that, gives me ideas…Anyway, on with the story!_

**Chapter 2:**  
_The Search Is On_

We all couldn't believe it. Skipper, dead? Impossible! We stood in shock as the two cried out a monsoon. The girls were starting to tear as well. Then, I got enough courage to ask. "W-What...happened?" I stuttered. Private looked up, looking as bad as ever, his eyes even more swollen. "Well, w-we were on our way...b-back to HQ...f-from a s-snowcone run..." he said.

"Then...(Sniffle)...w-when we were about to h-head off for a m-mission...we...we got ambushed..." he continued, wiping away his tears. I couldn't help but notice that they were hugging each other and Marlene was crying on his shoulder, which seemed a bit Prilene, but I understand. "Wait...ambushed by who?" I asked, to get that thought out of my head.

"Blowhole's m-minions, the lobsters..." he replied. I should have thought of it earlier. I stood in utter shock and disbelief for I figured out why Skipper died. I ran my memories back through my head like I was rewinding a movie and played back the events that occurred that day. Then, it hit me. "The missile. Blowhole blew him up, didn't he?" I asked the two.

_Campfire POV:_  
Blowhole raised his flipper. "Yes?" I asked him. "Well, about this _I blew him up_ thing, did I really do such a thing?" he asked. I knew he didn't know because he was still Mind-Jacked as well as Mind Hacked when that occurred. "Uh, yes, almost blew him up actually. That was when we first came here..." I answered. "Can we move on?..." Dozens of heads nodded.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
The two nodded. "Yes, but how do you know?" asked the little penguin. I wanted to answer, but it seemed too much for them, but I did anyway. "Because...we were supposed to be there..." Marlene turned with her tear-drenched face and walked up to me. "What do you mean? You were supposed to save him?" she asked.

I nodded. "THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU!" she screamed, blowing up into a rage. "Whoa! Let us explain!" She didn't listen to me. She shook me wildly, screaming at the top of her lungs. "HE COULD HAVE BEEN ALIVE RIGHT NOW IF YOU HAD JUST SAVED HIM!" she continued her fiery rage. "MARLENE!" I pushed her away, trying not to fall over after the shaking.

"Listen to us. We _did_ save him, but something has gone terribly wrong, and we don't know how to fix it until we join the Resistance..." Then, I felt a paw on my shoulder. It was Ernie. "I have seen this kind of thing before..." I looked at him, confused by his claim. "What do you mean?" I tried asking.

"I've seen this in movies before. I think somebody has messed with the Space-Time Continuum and changed the fate of the universe...that's why everything is all messed up..." he continued. It made complete sense. The Robo-Assualt Bugs roaming the place, Skipper...dead, and it is all because somebody had messed with the timeline. But who?

_Campfire POV:_  
"Oh! I get it now!" yelled Kowalski. "What's it dad?" asked Kate. "Well, this is another one of those _'mess with the past and everything changes drastically'_ things, right?" I nodded. "Exactly. But maybe we can minimize the disruptions, can we?" Everyone nodded and I continued.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
I thought for a while, thinking about what the future me said. Then, I managed to find the missing piece. "It was...Parker. He's the cause of all this..." I said. "Parker?" the three girls, who had finally stopped crying, asked. "Yes, I think he is the one responsible for the change in the timeline, but how?" I shifted my attention to Private and Marlene, who were as clueless as me.

"Ok, I know this is too much to ask, but, can you take us to the Resistance?" They declined instantly. "Why not?" Nick asked. "Because, they only resort to violence for solutions and they never negotiate! That's why..." said Private. "Seems they followed in Skipper's footsteps..." Marlene glared at Ernie. "What? It is true..." he said.

Ash then walked up to Private. "Please, Privey, you need to help us in order to fix all this. Can you do that? Please?" she asked in her most loving voice possible. He looked at all of us as well as Marlene, ending his gaze at Ash. He nodded once and Ash gave him a big hug. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she repeated as she swung the little penguin around.

She then put him down. "We're happy to help..." We all then packed up whatever we could and I stored them in my gut. Still needs a while to get used to. We headed out and when we reached the main gate, Marlene stopped dead in her tracks. "What's wrong?" I asked as she store at the open gate. "Well, what if, I can't control it?" she asked with a fearful voice.

I knew exactly what she's talking about. "Yes you can Marlene. Just do what...uh..just think of the happiest memory you have..." I suggested. She had told me that she figured out how control her feral side, back before all this, by thinking of good things. "No memory I have is happy enough. It always manages to..." I held up my flipper. "Ok, more specifically, think of your feelings for Skipper..."

She stood shocked. "I don't...I mean...How'd you know!" she asked. "I told you, we are from a better...uh...the better dimension compared with this madness..." She looked fearfully at the outside world beyond the gates. "So...does that mean..." Gem interrupted her. "He married you..." Marlene gasped, saying it was not possible. "Like we said, better dimension..."

"Well, here goes nothing..." Marlene closed her eyes and slowly stepped out. She was smiling and tearing as she did so, telling us that she was trying to visualize the marriage. When she managed to step out completely, her smile started to fade and she started growling. "Oh oh. Marlene! Just keep thinking about him!" She clearly was starting to lose control.

I then tried motivating her to keep control. "Come on! You can do it! Think of having kids, cause you do! One son and a daughter!" She fell to the floor, supporting herself with her knees and paws, growling and starting to turn. "Your son's name is Christopher Jackson! He is a penguin just like Skipper and he loves you a lot! And your daughter is Penelope Summers, an otter just like you!" I exclaimed.

She was still growling, but as I continued, it seemed to lessen with each piece of info I gave. "Come on Marlene!" In an instant, she roared to the sky and just fell, unconscious. "Marlene!" we all yelled and ran to the fallen otter. She turned to face us, now looking like her normal self, well, her normal self in this dimension.

"Marlene!? Are you alright!?" Private asked. She just moaned. "Pe...nelope. I always wanted...a daughter named Penelope..." We all gave a sigh of relief. "Am I outside? And I'm not...feral?" she asked. We all nodded. "Shall we go on?" They agreed and we got up. "What if those, whatever it is they're called, sees us?" asked Private. I regurgitated some baseball bats and lead pipes. "Use these then..." I said.

We followed Marlene in order to try to locate this Resistance. We had been walking, waddling, whatever, for quite some time. "Uh, where are we going to exactly, Marlene?" asked Gem. "Well, during my runs for food and water, I think I saw some members of the Resistance at the Bronx Zoo, gathering supplies or something. I'm thinking we should start there..." she answered.

_Campfire POV:_  
We heard the zoo gate creak open. We turned our attention to it and a figure walked in. "Hello everyone! Am I late?" asked the figure. It was Carol. "No, we're just telling true stories at the moment, so please, join us..." I told her. She found her place beside Clem and I asked him to help her catch up on what she missed. I then proceeded in the story.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
We were almost to the Bronx Zoo and it was getting late. "Uh, I think we'll need to find shelter before dark. That's usually when the patrolling ones come out..." Marlene suggested. We quickly made our way inside Bronx Zoo and we found it empty as well. But even so, we heard the clanking of metal.

We tried to locate where it came from and it seemed to led to the zoo's lemur habitat. We got in and saw behind the fake rocks...Carol. "Get back you...thing!" she yelled as two Robo-Assualt Bugs attacked her. She was using a broken push broom as a weapon. "That's Carol!" We all immediately jumped in and took pose beside her. "Wah! Who are you!?" she asked.

Without another word, other than a battle cry, we charged at the robots and attacked. A few minutes later, they were destroyed. "Whoa. Uh...thanks for the help...I guess..." she said, sounding awkward. "Well, since everyone we know doesn't know us anymore, I'm Josh Everett. This is my sister Nick Everett and these are our friends Ernie, Gem, Ash, Private and Marlene..." I said. "Name's Caroline Bittersweet..."

She shook our hands...I mean...paws and flippers. "But just call me Carol..." she continued. "Uh, you wouldn't happen to have a place we could stay for the night, do you?" asked Nick. "No, but I bet the zoo's storage room will do just fine. Just can't get it open though. Can you help me?" We nodded and she showed us to it.

It looked very similar to Central Park Zoo's one, only slightly smaller. It had the same locking mechanism as CPZ (Abbreviation for Central Park Zoo). I regurgitated the Smart Phone 2.0 and connected it to the keypad. "And...ok. It should be unlocked..." We all helped each other open the door and we got in. "Oh mama. That's a lot of food..." said Carol.

The room was stockpiled with food for many animals, different species and all. We looked around and found us more fish and some fruits. "Yes! I haven't eaten these in forever!" Marlene exclaimed as she found a freezer box filled with oysters. We dug in while I stored some of the food.

"Uh guys, come here. Does that look like..." Ernie's sentance was cut short when the door swung open and something was thrown in. "Aah! Knockout bomb!" But my warning was too late. The bomb exploded, spewing purple gas everywhere and knocking us all out. I could make out some black and white figures wearing gas masks as I slowly blacked out.

_A/N: Oh great! What happened? Find out in the next chapter! BTW, I always forget to thank the reviewers, so thanks y'all!_


	4. Chapter 3

_A/N: YAY! This is my second chapter I posted today! Well, enjoy what happens next and be ready for more cliffhangers!_

**Chapter 3:**  
_Meet The Resistance_

_Campfire POV:_  
"Uh, Josh? This is all real, right?" asked Gem and Ash in unison. "I'm not even gonna say it anymore..." Ernie said, frustrated. I repeated to them that it was all real and that it really happened. "Then, explain me this. Why don't we remember anything of that sort?" Gem asked. "Ah, soon guys. You'll know why soon. May I?" I said and continued on.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
When I came to, I was in a dark room, with a single lonely light above me. I could feel that I had my flippers tied behind me, with what seemed to be rope. I also felt the warmth of others on my back, telling me that the rest were with me. "Guys? Are you alright?" I asked.

I could hear subtle voices in the background, almost disembodied. "Josh? W-Where are we?" asked Nick. "Urgh, I feel dizzy..." said Gem. Ash and Carol just moaned. "Do you have that feeling that someone is watching us?" Ernie asked. "In this situation, there always is..." I looked up to the darkness in front of me.

"Ain't that right, Kowalski?" I said. _"Dang! How'd you know, spy!?"_ a voice said. "Told ya someone was watching..." I boasted. Then, a figure walked out of the darkness, and by golly, it was Kowalski. He too, looked dreadful. He was wearing a worn-out version of his Commander Kowalski outfit and he looked crazy.

_Campfire POV:_  
"Hey!" Kowalski exclaimed. "What now!?" I asked, frustrated. "Do I look crazy to you!? Huh!? Do I!?" he said. "You will if you continue freaking out! And come on, this is another dimension you..." Skipper said to his lieutenant. "Thank you Skipper..." I replied. I ignored Kowalski's comments and continued on the story.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
Anyway, he asked us the usual questions such as, "Who are you?" and "Who do you work for?" and all that paranoia-driven stuff. "Where's Private and Marlene?" I finally asked. "Away from you all, that's for sure..." he answered. "Rico, what's the results of the Truth Detector?" We heard a grunted "Truth..." from the darkness.

"Got it. Ok, I am letting you all go, but..." Nick interrupted him. "If you do anything funny, I'll blah blah blah. Yeah, we heard this speech a million times..." she bragged. He untied the ropes and he showed us out the room. On the other side of that door, was a few more a familiar faces. It was still dark out, which meant we were not out for very long. In one corner, Beck and Stace were arm wrestling.

Julien, Maurice and Mort were there too, just stoning in another corner of the Bronx Zoo storage room. We were actually in a broom closet. We could see that Private and Marlene were ok, as they were eating some of the food. "So, this is the Resistance?" Ernie asked Kowalski. Rico had followed us out too, but he looked normal. Well, Rico-Normal to be exact.

"It's not a big group, but it's easier to manage..." he replied, adjusting his helmet. "And you lead it?" asked Carol. "Oh no, I'm not the leader of the group..." At the same time, we heard what sounded like...a segway. No, two segways. Then, two figures entered the storage room. "The perimeter is secured Kowalski..." said one of them. It was...Doris and Hazel?

"Doris? Hazel? You're the leaders of the Resistance?" we said. "Uh, Kowalski? Are they?" Kowalski nodded his head. "Ok. Then did you tell them our names?" He shook his head. "Well, then why do you know us..." she asked, suspicious of our knowledge of their identity. "That's because...it's a long story..." Nick answered. "Tell us then..." Hazel asked.

"Ok, possibly only Kowalski will be able to believe this, but...we come from an alternate dimension..." I said. "Ha! You expect to believe that! Kowalski?" He laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, uh, totally fake, that I'm sure..." But as they laughed, a clap of thunder along with lightning boomed. "Gah!" we all yelped as the candles and lamps that lit the place went out.

Then, another thunder clap with lightning boomed, where a figure stood in front of us. "AAH! GHOST!" screamed Carol. "Wait...that's no ghost. That's...Fred's grandma?" I said as the lamps came back on, illuminating the figure. Indeed it was Fred's grandma. "The prophecy is true!" she said. "Um, what prophecy?" Nick asked.

"THE prophecy! The saviour lies in the hands of the ones with special eyes..." she riddled, pointing at us. "What? Our eyes?" I asked her. "Hey, that seems true. You two have rare eye colours..." said Marlene. We thought about it and they were right. Turquoise and purple eye colours are rare. "Then what do we do? How can we fix this?" I tried asking her.

"I don't know. I'm just here to reveal the prophecy..." And with that, she disappeared with another flash of thunderous lightning. "Wait!" Gem and Ash yelled in unison, but she was gone. Then, Doris started clapping sarcastically. "Wow, perfect timing. I bet you asked her to say that so we would believe your lies..." she claimed arrogantly.

"Seriously, you think that's what just happened?" Nick asked. "There's nobody you can trust these days. You're either one of us or one of them..." Private waddled up to Doris. "But I'm very sure they are good; they aren't bad or evil..." Doris looked down at the little penguin. "How are you so sure?" Marlene stepped in. "He just knows. He can tell who's good and who's bad..."

Then, someone started banging on the door. "It's the patrol bugs! Rico! Weapons!" Hazel said. Rico quickly regurgitated some melee weapons. I gave my group their weapons and took out the freeze ray Marlene had before. "Is that my old freeze ray?" I nodded. "Well, I don't think that will work against robots!" he exclaimed.

I opened a panel on the freeze ray and flipped a switch. The whole device changed it's colour from blue to red. "Then how about it's Ion Ray function?" I asked sarcastically. We all watched the door as it rattled violently. I aimed our only gun, well, ray gun, at the door, ready to shoot. But, it just stopped as suddenly as it started.

"Is it...gone?" asked Marlene. We all relaxed. "Whew! For a second there, I thought we were..." But as Beck and Stace said that, the door blow open, sending it's metal scraps everywhere. Then, a few, slightly bigger, robot bugs creeped in. "I'm guessing they're the Robo-Patrol Bugs..." I said to Doris. "Attack!" she yelled.

We all charged at the robots and they started hitting them. I was blowing holes in them with the Ion Ray. But it seemed that with every one destroyed, two more appeared. "Fallback! There's too many!" yelled Hazel. "No were not! Kowalski, Rico, Private...4th of July Surprise!" I requested.

They then performed the maneuver like a well-oiled machine, Kowalski getting into a bazooka-firing stance, Rico as the bazooka and Private helping in the aiming and firing. "Mark!" I yelled and Private pulled Rico's flipper down, causing him to regurgitate dozens of lit rocket fireworks at the robots. Upon impact, the rockets exploded, along with the robots themselves.

_Campfire POV:_  
"Ah...the 4th of July Surprise. One of my favourite maneuvers..." Skipper said, interrupting me, again. "Yeah, it's an awesome maneuver..." I replied. Now, Hans raised his wing. "Yes?" I said. "Are we in the story too?" he asked full of interest. "Um...yeah. But not so soon. Let's proceed on..." I continued.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
When the last one was destroyed, everybody flopped down to the floor, exhausted from the fight. "How...do you know...about...that maneuver. That is one of the most...classified maneuvers...we have been taught..." said Kowalski. The rest looked at us with pure interest. "Yeah, Sk...uh...he never asked us to use that unless it was a real emergency..." supported Private.

"We told you. We're from another dimension..." I replied. "We better get what we can and get out of here before anymore of those...what did you call them?" Hazel asked as she helped her sister up. "Robo-Patrol Bugs. Not sure if that's what they're really called..." Nick answered. "Whatever. Just, gather what you can and we're outta here..."

We all helped gather whatever food we could get and Rico and I stored them. Then, we all got out through the back door and onto the streets. "Where to now?" asked Carol. "Back to our main camp site..." Doris answered and we all followed.

_Flashback POV (Third Person POV):_  
What we didn't know was that the Robo-Patrol Bugs had surveillance cameras in their eyes. The video it has recorded will immediately get sent to it's control station if it gets destroyed. Back in the control station, also known as the Coney Island Lair, the lobsters were busy monitoring each security camera until...

"Hey Doc! We've got about nine Robo-Patrol Bug video surveillances sent to us!" said one of the lobsters. Then, the sound of a segway filled the room. "Play them all..." a voice said. It was Blowhole. The lobster followed the order and played them all. "Seems my sisters are still surviving...wait! Freeze that!" he ordered. He store at the freeze-framed videos, then he ordered them to notify the boss. The lobsters sent a copy of the footage to him.

Meanwhile, in another part of the lair, the boss received the videos. "Well, looky here. The great Josh and Nick are finally here..." he said. "Well then, time to put phase 2 of my long term plan into action, ain't that right?" He turned to the shadows behind him and a very faint figure appears. "Yes sir. I will do whatever it takes to eliminate them. I will not fail you, Parker..." the figure said. "Excellent..."

_A/N: Whoa, who is that last guy? I'll leave it to y'all to find out. And here's a little thing we can try. Review to me who the last person whom I never mentioned the name and you get to make an OC that I can try to add in the story! Till then, PEACE!_


	5. Chapter 4

_A/N: Welcome back everyone! This is yet another cliffhanger filled chapter and I will try my best to keep the suspense going, until the right moment. So, please enjoy!_

**Chapter 4:**  
_Surprise, Surprise..._

My group, as well as Doris', headed through the darkened city. There weren't many Robo-Patrol Bugs around so we managed to slip past them with ease. Then, we arrived at Times Square, and boy was the place trashed. Cars piled into barricades, all kinds of stuff everywhere and the giant TVs were smashed.

We all entered one of the buildings that was heavily barricaded by cars and all its windows were barred with planks and other materials. Judging from the big sign on the front door, it was a cinema. They barricaded the door behind us using large metal beams. "Ok. That went well..." said Hazel. "You don't say..." Doris replied as we entered the main theater.

The main theater looked incredible. Most of the chairs that were there were removed and stacked on various exits to barricade them, there was a stockpile of food and supplies on the sides of the room and the place was lit with tons and tons of lamps of various shapes and sizes. "Wow! This place is amazing!" said Gem and Ash in unison. "Why do you two talk like twins anyway?" asked a curious Private. They just shrugged.

"Well, you can all stay for as long as you need. Kowalski, how's the defenses holding up?" asked Doris. He checked the barricades on one of the doors. "Uh...I...think they'll hold..." he said, sounding very unsure. "Are you sure?" asked Marlene, who had noticed his tone. "Well...uh...yeah?" he staggered.

He seemed to be very unsure of whether or not the barricades were ok. So, I went there myself and checked it. "Hmm, looks stable enough, but the door seems to be jammed in the door frame..." I observed. "Well, then we wouldn't have to worry about it then..." With that, Doris left to do some admin of sorts. Hazel drove up to me, after Kowalski gave a big sigh and left.

"Um...Josh is it? Do you think that you can try not to do anything scientific or mathematical in front of Kowalski, please?" she said. "Why not? He loves science and maths..." She gazed over to him, where he was slumping over on one of the chairs. "Because, he's had a rough time, especially since...the incident..." Without another word, we all knew what 'the incident' was.

"Since then, he vowed never to be smart again, as it is a reminder to him of the day he lost a friend..." she added. "Not friend, his family..." Nick replied. She looked like she understood what she meant for that. "Well, if you need anything, you know where to find me..." She left as she said that. We all then went up to Doris to see if we could do anything to help.

"I guess you can. Let me see...someone needs to check the rest of the barricades to see if their still intact, we'll need to find more weapons and...Kowalski and Rico will need some help removing the remaining chairs..." she instructed. "Will do..." we answered in unison.

"Ok...um...Gem and Ash, you check the barricades, Nick and Carol you can help Kowalski and Rico while Ernie and I will do the weapons. Everyone clear?" They all nodded and we proceeded in the jobs. "Uh, Doris? Where do you keep most of the weapons?" I asked her. "In the video room above us. They are mostly melee weapons, but they're better than nothing. Why?"

"Oh, we have an idea. Do you have any spare parts and stuff like duct tape, batteries, wires and all those sorts?" Ernie asked. She thought for a little while. "I think you can find some in the broom closet in the video room..." We thanked her and headed upstairs to do what we needed to.

_Flashback POV (Third Person POV):_  
The assassin was now in the warehouse of the Bronx Zoo. He was wearing some kind of robe with a hood and mask that covered his face, making him look like someone from Assassin's Creed or something. The only thing you can tell, is that he is a penguin, from the beak sticking out of his mask. He inspected the area for clues that can help him complete his mission. Nothing.

He checked around the outside and found a long trail of motor oil, possibly from the destroyed Robo-Patrol Bugs. "Well, well, well. Looks like today's my lucky day..." he said to himself as he analyzed the long trail of motor oil on the asphalt to have been made by a segway. The tracks headed into the city. "This is gonna be easier than I thought..." he said as he followed them.

_Campfire POV:_  
"Um, excuse me?" asked Amy, who raised her flipper. "Yes?" I enquired. "Well, if you don't mind me asking, who is this assassin you speak of?" she continued in her signature British accent that she picked up from her dad. Everyone agreed. "If I tell you all now, then I wouldn't be able to see all your priceless faces..." I said. "Plus, it adds to the suspense..." I added.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
"So, was it true about what the crazy squirrel was babbling about?" Carol asked Nick after a while. "I'm not sure about that, but we are from a...well...I should say that we came from a better, parallel universe from this place..." she replied. "This again! Will you stop lying about coming from a better universe or whatever, cause it is not possible nor does it exist!" Kowalski protested angrily.

"Whoa, calm down! What's up with you anyway?! You don't want to be smart, you are even more skeptical about science and you are acting crazier than normal. This is not the Kowalski I know..." He immediately stood up. "You don't know me at all! You'll never understand me! NEVER!" he screamed. Rico gestured him to sit back down and relax.

"What's going on?" asked Doris and Hazel as they drove toward us. Ernie and I came along as well, after we heard Kowalski yell. The rest just ignored, besides Marlene and Private, who also followed us. "Let us handle this..." Nick told the rest. "Trust me, we know all of you better than you know yourselves!" she argued back. "Prove it then!" Kowalski scowled.

"Fine!" she said. She pointed at Kowalski. "Your full name is Alfred James Kowalski. Your current rank is Lieutenant 1st Class and you specialise in the gadgets you all use. You are the smartest penguin on Earth and you use and abacus instead of a calculator because Rico accidentally destroyed your last one. You also are Skipper's right hand man and the options guy..." She shifted her pointed flipper to Rico, who looked nervous.

"You are Rico Dela Santos. Your rank is Sergeant 1st Class and you specialise in explosives and weapons. Your ability to swallow and regurgitate anything allows you to store supplies for future use. And whenever you are exposed to too much explosions, you go into destruction mode. You also are the best in the team for driving the car..." She asked me to continue it for her, before she loses it.

"Well...uh...Private's full name is Private Riley Goodwin. His parents are Barbara and Harold Goodwin and they live in a zoo London which I think is called the Cambridge Zoo. Your rank is Private 1st Class, ironically, and you are in special operations. You have skill that you vowed never to use, but still did anyways, called the Quantum Hyper-Cute, as named by Kowalski, which does 132% adorability that can knock out anyone who sees it, most of the time..." I breathed and faced Marlene.

"You are Marlene Summers. You were born in an aquarium in California and you were transferred to Central Park Zoo soon after you reached 16. You have a sweet personality and you always look in the bright side of life. You have won the Internet Popularity Contest three times in a row at your old aquarium but there was a scandal that made you unable to join again. You also have a secret crush on Skipper but never admitted it to him as you think you two can never ever be together..." I took another big breath of air and changed my gaze to Doris and Hazel.

"You two are Doris Young and Hazel Young respectively. Your parents live in an aqua park in California and the only reason why Doris wants to stay in New York is..." Doris stopped me here. "Nothing! Absolutely no particular reason!" she defended. I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, you both also have a brother named Francis Young, whom you believe to be dead but in reality is not..." I added. They gasped.

"Wait, what did you just say?" asked Doris, noticing my last sentence. "Your brother is not dead..." I repeated. "That's impossible! We know he's dead! The platypus guy a long time ago told us he was dead!" she protested. I simply crossed my flippers and smirked. "You really don't know. First, that platypus guy is none other than Parker himself..." I said.

"Secondly, your brother is alive and I know who he is..." I added. "Who then! Where is our brother!" they both demanded. "Your brother is...Blowhole..." They all gasped at the claim. "No! That can't be true! My brother is not evil! He...he would never..." Doris stammered at a complete lost for words. The rest were in the same state.

"You want proof? Here..." I regurgitated two boxes that are half-covered in gift wrapping. "This was given to me on Christmas, which was yesterday, by the better dimension Private..." I showed them that inside the box wrapped with a green wrapping with a red ribbon still on it, a photobook. It had a homemade brownish hard cover with the words 'Our Happy Family' written on it.

I then showed them that the content of the other box, which was wrapped with a light blue and blue striped wrapping, was a CD case with the first group photo we ever took as its cover. On the case were the words 'Memories To Last Forever'. "And this one's from better dimension Kowalski, obviously..." They all gathered round as I opened the photobook.

The whole book contained every photo we took and was arranged in chronological order. There pictures of the team, the zoosters, Kowalski's wedding day, the other wedding days, the kids...just about everybody was there. I explained each one to them. The photos of the couples and their kids almost gave Private, Rico, Kowalski and Marlene a heart attack.

They all looked so happy seeing these pictures. They all took some out for a closer look. "See, right here is you two with your brother Francis Young..." I said as we got to picture of the three. They all looked as happy as anyone could ever be, all standing on similar segways with big smiles on their faces.

"You all even signed it..." I added, taking out the photo and showing its back, which had Doris', Hazel's and Blowhole's signature. Doris' was a cursive version of her name, Hazel's was just the same and Blowhole's was a cursive 'FFB', which stood for 'Francis, Flippy, Blowhole'. "That's...my signature! But...how!? Even Hazel's and...a different version of Francis' signature is there! How!?" Doris asked.

She, Hazel and Blowhole all knew how to read and write after their parents passed down their skill in the English language to them. They all learned to sign their names, but Blowhole's was just 'FF' before, which stood for 'Francis, Flippy'. Basically, Francis is his real name, Blowhole was his alias and Flippy was his stage name.

"Well, maybe this can explain a bit more..." I handed the CD to Ernie instructed him to play the first video on it through the cinema's projector. A minute later, a video played on the screen in the front the room. It was our first vlog in their dimension. _"Hello everyone! This is Josh..."_ the me on the vlog said. Everybody watched it calmly, gasping at parts they didn't know.

The rest couldn't believe that Kowalski had actually married Doris, till they saw his ring. _"SKIPPER! Jeez, don't sneak up on us like that!"_ We made it to when Skipper gave us a jump scare. Everyone who was watching almost broke down, as they got to see Skipper again after so long. We proceeded on and made it to Blowhole.

_"Sure. For those of you watching this, the name's Dr. Blowhole, real name's Francis Young and stage name's Flippy. I have two sisters, Hazel and Doris Young..."_ the Blowhole in the vlog said. I asked Ernie to stop it. The look on everyone else's face was priceless. "It...It is true. But...Flippy is my uncle..." Doris said. "No, I assure you. He's your brother..." I replied.

Suddenly, the exit doors that led to the rest of the building flew open. "ASH? What's going on? Why are you slamming doors?" Nick asked. "Gem...and I...were checking...the barricades...then...someone...took Gem!" she staggered between breaths. "Say what now!" yelled Nick. "GEM'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!" she repeated.

_A/N: Oh no! Gem's been kidnapped! Or should I say penguin-napped. But who kidnapped her? Who's the assassin? These questions will be answered, in the coming chapters! Till then, R&R!_


	6. Chapter 5

_A/N: Yay! Chapter 5 is up! This didn't really take long, so it may sound slightly rushed at parts. So, before I forget, thanks to all the reviewers, which ain't a lot, for supporting this all the way. Nonetheless, enjoy!_

**Chapter 5:**  
_The Hope-Broken Resistance_

"Where did she get kidnapped at?!" I asked. She took a deep breath so as to reduce her shallow breathing. "We were at...the west wing of the place, when suddenly...someone knocked me out...and when I woke up, Gem was gone..." she said. "And all I found...was this..." She held up a black feather. "You sure that ain't Gem's?" asked Ernie as she walked toward us.

"Yes, I'm sure. This feather is pure black. Gem's has a slight brownish tinge to it..." Hazel took the feather from her, examining it carefully. "Great! Just great!" Hazel blurted out. "What's great?" Kowalski asked. "Hoboken..." The rest all disagreed. "What! That's suicide!" Kowalski said.

"Well, this feather belongs to none other than...Hans..." The rest gasped again. "I knew it! I knew the Hope-Broken Resistance were tailing us!" Doris claimed. "Hope-Broken Resistance?" Ash and Nick asked in unison. "What! Even with Gem gone you still can speak in unison! Urgh!" Ernie said, annoyed.

"Hope-Broken is their word play of Hoboken. They always try to steal our supplies..." Ash took out a note. "So, that's what the HBR stands for on this note..." Doris shifted her gaze to her. "They left a note?" Ash said that they wanted supplies, just like she said they wanted. "See. At the end, they signed HBR..." she added. _"This is definitely Clemson's handwriting..."_ I whispered to myself.

"What are we gonna do then? We can't hurt them, even if they're evil...again..." said Nick. "And why not?" Doris said. "Cause we became their friends in our universe..." I replied, which was followed by more gasping. Before they started thinking the wrong things, I opened the photobook again to a page called 'Frenemies Nevermore'.

I opened the attached folder containing dozens and dozens of fun photos of the three Hobokeners with various Central Park Zoosters, which also meant the team, Doris, Hazel and Carol. "Is that...Clemmy?" asked Carol. I nodded and she immediately took the photo of Clem carrying her bridal-style.

"Clemmy?" Kowalski seemed suspicious the fact that Carol was staring at a photo of Clemson with her in it. "That's what she calls him, like we call him Clem..." replied Nick. "Uh, hello! If you completely forgot, they still have my sister!" yelled Ash. "She's your...sister?!" asked Carol, Doris and Hazel. "Step-sister to be a bit more accurate..." Ash replied.

"Well, I guess this is a good chance to test the weapons we made..." I regurgitated a few lead pipes with a battery wired to the metal part, with duct tape as a handle. "I'd call it an electric pipe, but call it as you wish. Plus, if all else fails, we go with the classic..." I then regurgitated about three nailed baseball bats.

"Wow! How'd you make these?!" asked Hazel, picking up the nailed baseball bat. "Ernie and I picked up a few ideas from previous zombie games we played..." Everyone grabbed one of the electric pipes while Hazel, Doris and Carol picked the nailed baseball bats. "Hey! How bout me!" said Rico. "Hey, did he just say, like a whole sentence?" asked Kowalski. Rico nodded.

"What's so fascinating about that?" Ernie asked. "He hasn't spoken full sentences since the incident..." Kowalski answered. "Well, I saved the best ones for last. I only got two though, so one for you and one for me..." I went back up to the video room to collect my monstrosities. "Say hello...to Lightning Flipper...and Hammer Head..."

I came down dragging two different devices, one made of duct tape, aluminum foil, some wires and three 12V batteries while the other from a shortened sledgehammer that has nails hot-glued to the ends of its head and a few weighted plates under the head. "You, Rico, can have either..." He instantly ran for the Hammer Head. "This one!" he cheered.

"Great. Let's head out!" Doris glared at me. "Who put you in charge?" she bragged. I just rolled my eyes. "Becky, Stacey and the lemurs, minus Ernie, stay here and guard this place. We'll all be back before you know it..." Doris looked at Beck and Stace. "And you two are in charge..." They all nodded and we headed on to Hoboken Zoo. When we arrived just outside the zoo, it was clearly heavily barricaded as well.

_"How are we going to sneak in?"_ asked Hazel softly. _"Follow me. I know another way in..."_ I led them towards the back of the zoo. _"Where to now, Einstein?"_ Doris asked. _"Through the looking glass..."_ I said. They all looked confused, until I climbed up a street corner mirror and pushed on it. A door on the wall behind it opened up, to everyone's astonishment. I jumped back down and headed toward the secret door.

"What is this place?" asked Private as we walked further down the series of tunnels and stairs. It slowly got darker and creepier as we advanced through. We soon reached a door at the bottom of the stairs. _"Ok. We have to be extremely careful here, so..."_ I opened the door, revealing a hidden lair similar to the penguin HQ...just...more crowded with blueprints, inventions and other misc items.

_"Welcome to Hans' Secret Lair..."_ I whispered. _"Wow, this place is amazing..."_ Marlene commented. I asked them to stay put and I looked around for any sign of Hans. I found nothing, so we proceeded to the elevator just opposite the mess. _"Note to self: ask Hans to clean this place up..."_ I thought in my head.

We got in and I pressed the bottom button. "Wait...ain't that gonna bring us downstairs?" asked Kowalski. "Hans has his ways in security; he puts the elevator buttons in reverse order, so, down is up and up is down..." We could clearly feel the elevator going up. When the doors opened, we found ourselves at the foot of the rock in Hans' habitat.

_"Right, now to look for..."_ Before I finished, a voice called out. "Hold it right there!" We turned to our left and saw Hans with his laser gun. "Great..." Ernie, Gem and Nick commented. "Savio, get them over there..." Then, Savio came up behind us and wrapped us all in his coils. He got everyone, which was kinda impossible, due to the fact of Doris and Hazel being there.

They took us to the same room where Zookeeper Frances kept pictures of the commissioner before, which of course wasn't there anymore. Over by the darker corner of the room was Gem, tied with one piece of rope, similar to how Skipper was tied up by Officer X at the convenience store in the episode "Snowmaggedon". Beside her was another figure.

"Well howdy, Clem..." I said sarcastically. He stood up and walked out of the shadows. "What did you call..." He paused as he store at a certain someone, his jaw dropping in disbelief. "C-Carol? I-Is that...really you?" Carol turned to the sound of the familiar voice, which was a bit challenging due to her being in the grip of Savio. "Clemmy? Clemmy! Yes! It's me!"

She squeezed her way out and ran straight for Clemson, but moments later, Hans tackled her. "Hey! Get off her!" Clem yelled, pushing Hans off. "But she was gonna attack you!" Hans protested as he got up. Clem ignored the comment completely and helped Carol up. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" he asked. Carol just shook her head.

"No...Oh, I'm so happy to see you again!" They got into a tender embrace. Hans and Savio just looked on. "Lost lovers..." Ash said. The two just gave a sign of understanding. "Ok, back to the business at hand. What were you doing in my secret lair! Better yet, how do you know about my secret lair!" Hans demanded. "We, excuse me, are here to get my sister back..."

They looked at Gem, then back to Ash. "She's your sister? But your a badger, and she's a..." Ash stopped him. "Penguin? Long story; she's my step-sister..." she answered. "O...k...Aah, Doris. Did you bring my supplies?" he asked with an evil smirk on his face. "Does it look like we have them?" she argued. "Well, then you can't get her back!" He cackled menacingly.

"That still sounds weird..." Ernie commented. Hans just glared. "Come on Hans. Please let her go? We made you our friend before, we can do it again..." Nick tried. "Yeah, like we'll ever...wait, what do you mean 'before'?" he asked. I immedietely regurgitated the photobook and it flipped to the page where it contained their fun photos. The two gazed at the photos, a face of disbelief forming as they continued staring.

"Ok, what are these?" asked Savio. Clem and Carol's hug ended when they heard the book and they were now staring at the same photo Carol looked at before. "These, Mr. Martinez, are photos of the fun times you had in our parallel universe..." Savio looked at me, surprised that I said his last name. Hans and Clem were staring too.

"What? Oh yeah, I just said your last name. Trust me, we know you dudes..." I replied with a glint in my eye. Gem mumbled, eager to say something but couldn't due to the rope in her beak. "How did you get these photos? We weren't there. And...is this...Skipper?" Hans asked as he picked up a photo of them flipper/wing wrestling. "Yes, that's your old friend Skipper, Mr. Svensen..." I smirked.

He looked up. "This cannot be! He...He would never want to be my friend again! He said so himself!" Hans protested. He turned around, and continued looking at the picture. "Yes he does. I've seen it myself. He just needs to know your side of the story, about the Denmark incident..." His head shot up. "Y-You know about the Denmark incident?" he asked.

"Yes. I know you had no choice but to betray him in order to protect him, but he doesn't know what you had gone through. You were forced to join the enemy's side and betray your team, but you decided to keep quiet about it, knowing if Skipper knew, he would get himself killed to get you out of there. But, you were a good friend, even though you had to give up your friendship to protect him..."

He stood in utter shock. He was speechless. He didn't know what to say or do anymore. "And how can I believe you?" I then regurgitated a voice recorder. "That's Skipper's log, in my dimension. Just listen to it..." I told him. He picked it up and pressed the play button.

_"Skipper's log. Today was, well, a rather eventful day, but I will end with the best. First of all, well, Savio and Clemson had decided to repent, which is great. Clemson had also found his...um...long lost girlfriend, I guess, by the name of Caroline Bittersweet, and I guess, my luck turned around today. I never thought the day would come that I would actually forgive Hans. Now...I just wished he told me sooner, instead of going through all this. I...never knew he...(Sigh)...Anyway, we are finally best pals again so I guess that is the best thing yet...(Long pause)..."_ The recording then turns to static.

_Campfire POV:_  
"So all along, my lastest voice log was with you..." Skipper said, crossing his flippers. While I was narrating the story, I had also taken Skipper's log out, which he asked me to hold on to, and played that very recording. "Well, it did come in handy, didn't it?" I said. He sat silent for a moment. "I suppose so...Just don't show the ones I marked classified, alright? I don't want to start a war or something..." he ordered.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
"Was that...really him?" Hans asked. I nodded and he told Savio to let us go. He had his back facing us, but I swear I could see tears falling from his face. "Just...go...and take this...and her...with you..." He held out the recorder without looking at us, and asked Clem to untie Gem. She slowly walked toward us and I took the recorder away. "Are you sure...you'll be alright?"

He turned around, and as predicted, he was crying, his eyes red and watery. "Go, before I change my mind..." We just stood still and he pointed the laser gun at us. "GO!" he yelled. We quickly picked up our stuff and ran out the door, straight to the main gates. We pushed the barricade open and dashed out, closing the barricade behind us. "What happened to him?" asked Gem. "He needs time, to heal..." I replied.

"He's heard enough, especially about the wish he wanted coming true, the one on Skipper forgiving him..." I added. "What now?" asked Marlene. We stood silent for a while. "I guess...now we plan on how we can stop Parker and fix all this..." I said. Everyone agreed and we made our way back to base.

When we arrived, it seemed the same as when we left it. We knocked on the door so that Becky and Stacey could open the door. "Becky? Stacey? Unlock the door. We're back..." Hazel asked. No reply. "Hmm, that's weird. The door isn't even barricaded..." Doris commented when she pushed on the door and it opened. We slowly got in and lock the door behind us.

"Guys? Why is the...Guys?" We looked around the place and they were nowhere to be seen. "Hello?! Guys?! This isn't funny!" Hazel tried. Then, we heard a voice from the darkness. _"Welcome! I have been waiting for you..."_ it said. Then, a figure appeared behind the supplies. "Who are you?" Nick asked as we looked upon an Assassin's Creed looking animal. "Your worst nightmare..." he said in a half muffled voice, but sounded...familiar.

_A/N: Yeah, just perfect. The assassin has arrived. Anyone can guess who is is, cause I'm trying to make him unrecognisably familiar, and I know some of you may know who it is. Well, till the next chapter, R&R!_


	7. Chapter 6

_A/N: The moment you've all been waiting for! The revealing of the assassin! Some of you seem to know roughly who it is, so some won't be as surprised as others. And because of this, I named the chapter in a way to say this. Enjoy!_

_Oh, all the reviewers are thanked for, well, the reviews! Now, go on…_

**Chapter 6:**  
_The Twisted Truth_

We looked on at the figure. "Your worst nightmare? Seriously, that's a bit cliche, don't you think? Plus, we've seen worst..." I said. "Oh, your not scared of me, aren't you?" He pulls out a combat knife and holds it threateningly. "How about now!" He ran toward us but we all dodged it. He started swinging the knife maniacally at mostly Nick and I.

"You can't win! I WILL kill you and my master will be happy!" he shouted as he took another swing. I can swear to you even with a muffled voice and a covered face, I knew this guy. But who was it? My thoughts ended when he managed to cut my left flipper. "Oww!" I yelled. Immediately, he kicked me and I was sent flying to the wall.

"Hey! Nobody messes with my brother and gets away with it!" Nick took a leap on him and grabbed the knife, but he wouldn't let go. "GET OFF ME!" he yelled as he tried to shake Nick off. I looked up at the two, the rest being kicked away when they got close. Then, he grabbed her flipper and threw her to the wall. The crazy thing was that what he did looked, familiar.

_"Huh? Is it just me or did that look like someone's best friend secret handshake move?"_ I thought to myself. He walked threateningly to my sister, knife in flipper. _"Wait, flipper!? I never noticed that! OMG!"_ I thought in my head. "Hey you, tough guy!" I taunted. He immediately turned around. I took out the Lightning Flipper and turned it on.

"Let's dance..." I said. He charged straight at me, the others yelling to me to get away. _"Wait for it, wait for it..."_ I chanted in my mind. When he was like four feet in front of me, I turned around and did a wall flip, landing right behind him. I hit him with the Lightning Flipper and he got shocked, literally. He dropped to the floor after running into the wall.

"You cannot...defeat me...I...am the best...and you are just...another penguin..." he said, slowly recovering from the shock. "I'm not a penguin. I'm a penguinized human..." I said. Then I regurgitated a needle and held it to his face. Fear engulfed him as he store at it. "And humans are smarter than most animals..." I added. He quickly backed up to the wall.

"AAH! GET THAT DEMONIC THING AWAY FROM ME!" he yelled pleadingly. The rest slowly made their way behind me. "I knew it, I knew I recognised you..." Still holding the needle in my left flipper, I slowly pulled off his mask and hood with my right. Everyone gasped at the face they all saw under the mask. He just looked at us, angry face and all. "S-SKIPPER!" They yelled.

_Campfire POV:_  
"WHAT!" Everyone yelled. I just laughed and took out a picture with my camera. "Ha! Like I said, priceless faces..." I said as I checked the picture I took. "The assassin was...me? But how? And why?" asked Skipper. "Just listen and all the pieces will fit together..." I assured. They nodded.

"Uh, Josh?" Carol asked. "What is it?" She asked me where she was, as I never mentioned her again. "Oh yeah, I forgot to say that you stayed back at Hoboken with Clem, of course..." I answered. "Oh...ok..." she said. Then, I continued.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
"S-Skipper? B-But, we saw you d-die!" Kowalski stammered. Indeed it was, the face of an angry Skipper was under that mask. "Who is this Skipper? I'm not Skipper! I'm Dark Shadow!" he said. We looked at him like he was crazy. He slowly reached for the knife beside him. He then grabbed it and jumped on me.

He held the knife above my face. "Get ready to die!" he yelled and did an evil laugh. Then, he just stopped, and fell to the floor, unconscious. "I'm sorry Skipper..." Private, who had knocked him out, apologized. I stood up and we looked upon him. "Skipper's...alive. But...why did he go...berserk?" asked Marlene.

"I think I know the problem..." I claimed arrogantly. I turned him over and pulled away the robe he wore from around his neck. I felt around the back of his neck, under his feathers and pulled out a chip. He started twitching violently for a few seconds, then stopped. "Here...This is the Mind Hacker..." I gave the chip to Kowalski, who was staring blankly at Skipper.

"Huh? Oh...uh...Hazel?" He passed the chip to her and she examined it. "This is...a mind control chip?" she asked. I nodded. "Yes, and this is exactly why Blowhole's acting this way as well, you know, take over the world kind of thing..." I answered. I asked them to bring the unconscious Skipper to one of the rooms while the rest look for missing persons.

_Flashback POV (Skipper's POV):_  
I had an extremely painful headache. I almost thought my head was gonna fall off. I opened my eyes to the pitch black environment. I tried speaking, but I noticed I had a piece of cloth in my beak. It was tied around my head. When I tried moving, I couldn't. I tried to adjust to the darkness and saw I was tied to a chair.

I shook it, to see if I can free myself, but each time I did, I felt dizzy. I stopped when I heard a door open then close. "Mmm Mmmmm?" I mumbled through the cloth. Suddenly, a figure came running to me and gave me a great big hug. "Oh, Skipper! I missed you so much!" it said. I could recognise who's voice it was, and it was...Marlene? "Mmm-mmmm?" I mumbled.

She looked up and I saw her hazel-brown eyes. She glanced at the cloth and took it off. "Marlene? What...where are we?" I asked, the cloth free from my beak. "That doesn't matter. What matters is your back with me..." she said, smiling all the way. Without being able to ask another question, she just leaned forward and kissed me...on my beak.

I just froze up. Was I dreaming? Before I knew it, I returned the kiss. "W-What was that f-for?" I stammered when we pulled away. "I never managed to tell this to you when you left, and I regreted holding it back. I didn't know how much it hurt when I heard you were gone. I...I love you Skipper..." she said. I had many questions in my head. When I left? Gone?

I didn't know what else to say, and neither could I lie anymore. "I...love you too Marlene..." I admitted. To be honest, it didn't feel as embarrassing as I thought it would be. It felt, great. Then, the lights just flashed on, blinding me momentarily. "Well, that's that. He's A-ok..." said an unfamiliar girl's voice.

When my eyes adjusted to the sudden light, I saw...Private, Kowalski, Rico, Doris and some others I don't recognise. My team ran for me and they too, engulfed me in a group hug. "What is this all about? Where are we?" I asked them, hoping to get answers. Then one of the others penguins, who had turquoise eyes and a bloody, bandaged left flipper, answered.

"Right now, you are in the Resistance's main camp site..." he answered. My team pulled away from the previous hug. He went behind me with a combat knife and cut me loose. "The name's Josh..." he said when I stood up and faced him. I shook his flipper which he had extended in greeting. "Well, I'm..." I was immediately overtaken by him. "Skipper. Yeah, we know..." he said.

"But, if you want your full name, you are Henry Skipper Jackson..." the same unfamiliar girl's voice answered. I turned and saw another penguin, this time with purple eyes, hobbling towards me. From the hobbling, I assumed that she sprained her leg. "How do you...Nevermind..." I said. With that, we all left the room.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
We had to fill Skipper in on things he had missed. When we asked him how he was still alive, he said he couldn't remember, until I mentioned Parker. "Parker? I think I recognise that name. Now I remember! When the missile exploded, I managed to escape from it just in time. I landed in the water, but I can't remember anything else from there..." he said.

"Well, do you remember any other memories between that?" asked Kowalski. "No...I told you. That last thing I remember is landing in the water, and now...I'm here, with all of you..." Skipper answered. Just then, we saw the same doors Ash ran through before open, revealing Gem, Ash and Ernie. They had grim faces on and they had dirt all over them.

"Did you find them?" asked Doris. They looked up and their face showed it all. "Oh my...are they?" They slowly nodded to Private's question and Ash started tearing. "They're...gone..." Ernie said. We all were shocked by the news. "They were...poisoned...by these darts. We couldn't just leave them there...so...we buried them..." Gem said, holding out five blow darts.

All the girls just fell on the knees they pretended to have and started crying softly. "Where...are they?" asked Nick. We all followed them through doors and hallways till we got to a hugh hole in the basement floor which had dirt in it. There was a recently used shovel near it and a few broken broomsticks used as a grave marker in the dirt. On it was a piece of paper with a few words on it.

_Here lie King Julien VIII, Maurice Graystone, Mort Littleton, Becky Barter and Stacey Turner. Born on various dates - Died on 26 December 2020._

_Campfire POV:_  
"What! We died!" screamed Julien, Maurice, Beck and Stace. Mort was just plain clueless. "Yeah, but you're still here right? And remember, this is a PARALLEL universe..." I said, stressing the word 'parallel'. They just sat back down, a bit disappointed by their death in the personal recount. I can't say story, cause this is real.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
I read it out loud for the ones who couldn't read. We all stood there to give them a moment of silence. "They were like our family. I can't believe they're...gone..." said Ash. "I'll miss you Julien. You were just like my big brother..." Ernie added. I got some candles from a nearby closet and regurgitated some flowers.

"Here..." I passed the candles and flowers to Ernie and Ash and they placed them carefully around the...grave...lighting the candles up when they were done. "They're gonna pay..." Ernie said inaudibly. "What?" asked Gem. Ernie then picked up his Electric Pipe and made his way up. "Hey! Where do you think your going!?" I yell at him. "We better follow him..." I said.

Ernie made his way up stairs and through doors till he made it to the main room. He walked towards the main door and started to lift the metal beam blocking the door. "Ernie! What are you doing!?" yelled Gem. "What...does it...look like...I'm doing! I'm getting...my revenge!" He managed to remove the beam and left through the doors. "Wait!" I yelled.

We followed him through the doors and into the dark of the night. When I saw him, I tackled him. "Get off me!" he yelled. He pushed me off and Skipper immediately went forward and put him in a headlock. "Calm yourself soldier!" he ordered. Ernie struggled but to no avail, then...we heard it.

"Uh guys? I think we should get inside, like now!" asked Doris. We all then heard the sound of clanking metal, lots of it. We looked up and by golly, there were dozens of Robo-Assualt Bugs as well as Robo-Patrol Bugs. "Oh snap...Get your weapons ready!" I yelled. I got my Lightning Flipper on, Rico took out his Hammer Head and the rest took their weapons out.

"Skipper, take this..." Marlene passed her Electric Pipe to him. "But what about..." She then let herself change to her feral self. "Oh, a...cool?" Marlene just smirked at him. It was obvious that she had full control of her feral side now. "Let's do this..."

We all charged at the robots and they did the same. I started short-circuiting them with the Lightning Flipper, same with the rest with the Electric Pipes. Rico was enjoying smashing those robotic bugs with the Hammer Head while Doris and Hazel used their segways in combination with the nailed bats in a modified 'game' of Polo.

"Dang, the battery's flat!" I took off the Lightning Flipper and threw it to the ground. I quickly regurgitated the Ion Ray which I kept and used that. "My battery's flat too!" yelled Skipper. "Skipper! Best friend secret handshake!" Without another word, he grabbed my flipper and I spun him around me, letting go and throwing him at the robots. "Take that!" I yelled.

The battle raged on. Then, we heard what sounded like...a car? Out of the blue, a heavily armored van jumps out from behind the robots, crushing most of them. The van powered parked beside us and the door slid open. "Get in!" a girl's voice said. The van was dark inside of it, and the night just made it worse, so we couldn't see who it was inside.

"Everyone in the van!" I yelled. We all got in it and the one in the van closed the door. "We're set! Hit the gas Malcom!" the same girl voice yelled. The van then boomed to life and we charged the streets in the mean machine. "Who are you?" Private asked. "I can't trust you with my name..." she simply answered.

_A/N: Ooh…Like I said, Cliffhanger City! And to make things crazier, I gave out either no names or names you don't know! Who's in the mysterious van? You'll be surprised. Till the next chapter, R&R!_


	8. Chapter 7

_A/N: And we are finally back with another chapter!_

_Skipper: About time…_

_Me: Wait, what are you doing here?_

_Skipper: Same as the rest…_

_Me: (Turns around and notices everyone there) O…k…_

_Private: Can I say it?_

_Me: Um…Sure?_

_Private: This chapter is a bit sad for some, and possibly a bit…(Shivers)…violent…_

_Me: Not that much ya know. It's just one…uh scratch that, I'm not saying…_

_Everyone: ENJOY!_

**Chapter 7:**  
_X-pect The Un-X-pected_

The inside of the van was extremely dark, and the barred windows didn't even light it up enough for us to clearly see each other. All we could see very clearly was our eyes. "Then what do we address you as?" I heard Private ask. If my guess is right, Private was on my right and Skipper was on my left. The rest were behind me and the girl was in front of us. Oh, and Marlene changed back when we came in.

"Uh...I'm not sure...um...Maybe just call me Red..." she answered. "Red? Why Red?" I heard Ash and Gem ask her in unison. "Really? We're going back to the unison thing?" Ernie facepawed, frustrated. I could barely see her pointing at her arm. "Cause, one, I have red fur, and two, it's my favourite colour..." she replied.

"Uh, Rico, do you have a lamp or something?" Skipper asked. Rico just said, "Nuh uh..." I regurgitated a large glowstick. "All I have is a glowstick, but it should be better than nothing..." I cracked it and shook the liquid crystals in it to activate its green glow. Now I could see everyone a bit more clearly. "Cool..." Red commented.

I could now see how she looked like. She did have reddish fur, I think, and it appeared that she had purplish eyes, unless the green glow of the glowstick was messing it up. Her species though, was still a mystery; I couldn't identify what she was with the limited lighting the glowstick had.

The van seemed to stop, as we almost fell forwards towards the front of the van. Where it stopped, nobody knows. Then, the metal window that drivers use to talk to the passengers behind slid open. A low, familiar sounding man's voice asked, "Is everyone alright back there?" It was all too familiar. "Is that?" asked Kowalski. Red simply answered him with, "Yeah, we're alright Malcom..."

We then heard the driver's door open, which was followed by heavy footsteps. "Oh, I think it is who you think it is..." I said to Kowalski. The back door slid open once more, lighting the darkened van and revealing both her and the mysterious man. We gasped as we looked upon our rescuers. We were, from my guess, an alleyway or something.

"OFFICER X!" we all yelled. The mysterious man was none other than Officer X himself. But, he seemed to be wearing some kind of camo uniform, but it wasn't an army uniform. It consisted of a dirty-green shirt sleeved T-shirt, camo pants and big, black boots. He also had his signature sunglasses on. We all backed up a few steps.

"Miss me penguins?" he asked tauntingly. "What are you doing here!?" Skipper asked, taking a fighting stance. The rest of us followed, well, aside from Doris and Hazel, who had no room to even sit up straight. "Me? Saving your sorry tail feathers, that's what..." he answered in a rather arrogant manner. Red looked at us weirdly.

"You know him?" she asked. We just nodded. "Yes, we know him..." I answered for them. Apparently, Officer X could understand us, which simplified some things, but asking why he understood us seemed a waste of time. Nick and Marlene looked at him, confused. "You're not here for...you know...revenge?" they asked, echoing each other.

"Oh course I still want revenge on you for ruining my reputation, but that was a long time ago, before that crazy dolphin took over New York, and possibly the rest of the world. No offense ladies..." he replied, directing the last line to Doris and Hazel. "None taken..." they simply replied.

"Besides, taking revenge on you now is useless, the fact that I can't get my job back even if I did..." he added. Some of us, aside from Skipper and his team, lowered our fighting stances. "So what? You need our help?" I asked. "Yes, I need your help to end that crazy dolphin's plan once and for all..." he said.

"But don't get too comfortable, cause if we managed to pull this off and New York returns to its former glory, I'm still gonna get my revenge..." he added. We all looked at each other, hoping to find answers on each others faces.

We especially looked at Skipper. "Well...I guess that's reasonable..." Skipper said. "You have yourself a deal..." he added, shaking his hand. "Oh, one more thing. Your name's Malcom?" I asked. "Not really. But it's a name she gave me, and I'm sticking to it..." he replied, pointing at Red.

We looked at her and she blushed shyly. "Uh...yeah. X just sounded a bit, boring, and he looked like a Malcom so...I gave him Malcom X and he seemed to agree..." she replied. Now, with all the light present, I can finally conclude that she was a...you know, let's save it till somewhere else.

_Campfire POV:_  
"What! Why later!" everyone griped. "Hey, cease the screaming! I don't want to reply this thing and have its speakers explode!" I yelled. They continued protesting, but a little quieter. "Why can't you tell us now?" asked Logan, Brandon, Carl...practically all the young ones. "Simple. I'm saving it for later cause we will go get her, but not now. Now, we should just finish the story, alright?" I assured.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
We all took a good look at X. "Well, you do look a bit like a Malcom..." Private commented. "Thanks. It's...uh...Private right?" Malcom asked. "Oh, that's right, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. Why do we always forget...Anyway, the name's Josh Everett..." I said. "And my sister here is Nick Everett, our best friends Ernie Jenkins, Ashley Carter and Gemma Jones..." I added, pointing to the respective person.

"Just call me Skipper, he's Private, Rico, Kowalski, Doris, Hazel and of course, Marlene..." Skipper introduced, pointing to the respective person as well. "Nice to meet you all..." Red said, shaking our flippers and paws. "Well, very nice to meet you then..." Private greeted. She seemed to look strangely at Marlene when she shook her paw, but she just kept quiet.

"Ok, now that greetings are out of the way, what can we do to stop my supposed mind-controlled brother?" asked Doris. "Uh...Hazel, do you think you can trace the control station of the Mind Hacker?" I asked. "I can try, but I'll need some parts to do so..." she replied. Kowalski then helped Doris up onto her segway and out if the van. She did the same for Hazel.

"What kind of parts?" Malcom asked. "Um...just a CPU motherboard, an old radio antenna, the transceiver of a wired phone, some tools and...electronic parts like wires, solder and a soldering iron...oh...plus we need a portable GPS to track the position with..." she requested. "Great, I got some tools in the van and some spare electronic parts..." Malcom answered.

"I have a radio right here..." I said as I regurgitated a small, old school radio. Rico regurgitated a soldering iron and a spindle of solder. "And Rico's got the soldering materials..." Kowalski said. "Perfect. That just leaves us with the CPU motherboard, the transceiver and the portable GPS..." Hazel said as she took the materials we already had.

"Ok, I don't want to lose anymore men, so we'll go in three teams of two. Kowalski, you're with me. We're going to get the transceiver..." Kowalski nodded to Skipper's order. "Josh and Ernie, you two will get the CPU motherboard. Marlene and Nick, the GPS. Everyone clear?" We all saluted. "The rest of you, just...stay clear of those things..." Skipper added.

"Then we'll need these..." Malcom went in his van and took out four walkie-talkies. He gave one to each team, and one for home base, which was him, Red, Ash, Gem, Private, Rico, Doris and Hazel. "Just keep it on Channel 1..." he added. With that, we headed off to find the parts needed.

_Flashback POV (Skipper's Team POV):_  
Skipper and Kowalski headed into one of the abandoned apartments in search of a telephone transceiver. They had to climb up the steps, which wasn't a problem, but they decided to start from the very top, just in case they needed to get away quickly, cause going down wasn't such a problem.

The two panted as they reached the twelfth floor of the apartment. "Next time...I say...we start from the top...Kowalski...please talk me out of it..." Skipper managed between breaths. When they regained some breath back, they searched the furthest unit on their left. "Kowalski, please tell me you still remember how to pick a lock..." Skipper asked.

"Uh, one moment sir..." Kowalski looked around the ruined apartment floor and managed to find one paper clip. He bent it in the right shape and opened the door with it. "Good job Kowalski. Now to get that transceiver..." Skipper complimented as they entered the abandoned unit.

_Flashback POV (My Team's POV):_  
Ernie and I searched the streets to try and find an electronics store nearby. After about a minute, we spotted a burnt down electronics store with the windows all smashed. I signalled Ernie the direction of the store and we headed inside via the broken windows.

"Whoa. This place looks a thousand years old..." Ernie commented as we set foot in the ash covered floor. He was right, the ash and soot covered every inch of the store, giving the illusion that the store was a thousand years old. There were scorch marks on the walls and it seemed to have started from the office of the place.

"Well, we'll be lucky if we can even find a working CPU motherboard..." I said. We then opened up some of the burnt CPUs to see if any of their motherboards still survived. We had opened up practically all the better conditioned CPUs but found all of their motherboards destroyed. "Dang. Hey, maybe their storage has some extra parts..." Ernie suggested.

_Flashback POV (Nick's Team POV):_  
Nick and Marlene thought it would be best to find a portable GPS in one of the nearby hardware stores. They didn't have many choices, as most were either looted already or burnt down. They managed to find one not too far from the others that was still in good condition.

They hopped up to the window and peeped inside. There was still plenty of items in there and it didn't seem to have been looted too heavily. They hopped back down and helped each other to open the door, which was already unlocked from previous lock-pickings. The place looked fine, apart from it looking like it got hit by a tornado or something.

_Flashback POV (Base Camp POV):_  
Gem and Ash had just about nothing to do as Malcom was on recon at one end of the alleyway while Doris was at the other end. Hazel was busy preparing the parts she had to help track the signal of the Mind Hacker. Red watched as the two related some things that they had done with the two boys they were talking to.

"So, let me get this straight. In your, parallel universe of this place, we're married?" asked Private. Ash nodded. "Yes, Gem and Rico are married as well, same for Doris and Kowalski as well as Skipper and Marlene..." she replied. Private was a bit more curious with this info. "And do we have...uh...you know...kids?" Once again, she nodded sheepishly.

"Yes again. We have a son named Logan Goodwin, a badger like me, and a daughter named Amelia Carter, a penguin like you. Logan has my eyes and Amy has yours..." she answered. "And me?" asked Rico, in his usual grunted tone of course. "Yep. We have two sons, Rico. One by the name of Carlos Dela Santos and the other by Brandon Jones..." Gem replied.

"And, Carl has my eyes while Brandon has yours..." she added. Red then bugged into the conversation. "Uh, speaking of family, what's...uh...Marlene's full name?" she asked. "Summers. Why?" She sat stunned for a second then snapped back to reality. "No reason. Just...curious..." She looked away, appearing to look in the direction Nick's team had gone to.

_Flashback POV (Skipper's Team POV):_  
When we got inside, the place was trashed. Almost everything was on the floor, either smashed up or just lying there. They carefully went over the sea of glass from a fallen over lamp light. They reached the living room and they started looking around for a telephone.

"Found it!" Kowalski said as he picked up a red coloured telephone set. He took out the screwdriver he borrowed from Malcom and he unscrewed its screws. He opened it up to find an assortment of electronic bits and pieces, one of them being the transceiver we needed. Using the screwdriver, he carefully pryed it out, making sure it doesn't break in half.

"Got it..." he said as it popped out. "Great, now let's head back..." Skipper said. They went back out the door, avoiding the glass from before, and waddled down to the stairs. "Now, I seem to regret going all the way up here..." They both sighed and worked their way down all 24 flights of stairs and back to base camp.

_Flashback POV (My Team's POV):_  
We entered the store's office to find the room completely scorched like the skin of an overbaked pie. "Whoa...I guess the fire started here. There's the storage room..." I said. We head through a badly burnt up door into the storage room. It looked promising, as the place seemed untouched.

"Ok, this shouldn't be too hard anymore..." We went over to one of the CPUs nearest to us and opened it up. We gloated when we found the motherboard we were looking for. "Ok, let's take this and head back to the others. They're probably done already..." We unscrewed the motherboard from the casing and we proceeded in making our way back to the rest.

_Flashback POV (Nick's Team POV):_  
The two searched the place high and low to try and locate a working portable GPS. "Hey! I think I found one!" Marlene exclaimed. Nick popped out a box she was searching in to see Marlene holding out a portable GPS in a sealed plastic container.

Marlene jumped down from the shelves she found it on and gave it to Nick. "Oh, great. Batteries not included..." Nick said. "I think I saw some by the front counter..." With that piece of information, they made their way there and found the right batteries for it, plus, they found scissors to open the container with. "Alright, I guess that will do. Let's go back now..." Nick said.

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
Ernie and I arrived with the motherboard in flipper, well, my flipper, to see Hazel already installing the transceiver that Skipper's team got. I gave it to her and she attached it to the mess of wires, the Mind Hacker and other oddities via soldering. Nick's team arrived a few minutes after us, in their possession the portable GPS.

"Here's the GPS, with working batteries in case you needed it..." Nick said. "Perfect. Ok, so, let me just attach it here and..." As soon as Hazel attached a wire into one of the GPS' jacks, it turned on, its marker over a specific location. "Yes! It worked! Now, let's see where the signal comes from. What? It says it is at Coney Island..."

We checked it and sure enough, the marker was placed over the Coney Island Aquarium, right over Seaville Aqua-Fun Park. "So, he's in Blowhole's lair. If we had thought of checking there before, we could have nabbed him already..." I groused. "Well, now we know, so we just need to..." Before Skipper could finish, I interrupted.

"Get in? We've got that covered. I know one of his secret escape routes..." I said. "Really?" asked Skipper. "Yeah, the better dimension him showed us all his entrances. I can even say we know the entire place like we built it..." Then, Doris bugged in. "Um...guys? I think we better go now..." She said in a worried voice.

"What's wrong?" asked her sister. Just as she said that, we could feel the ground shake in sync with booming footsteps. "That..." Doris replied, rushing back to where we stood. Then, as the quaking and booming intensified, a gargantuan robot bug appeared from where she once was. It had the words 'Robo-Destroyer' on it sides. "Oh fishy herring..." I said.

"EVERYONE QUICK! GET IN THE VAN!" yelled Malcom. The destroyer roared and we all quickly jumped into the van and we zoomed away. Doris and Hazel followed behind on their segways. "What is that thing!" Red yelled. "If I read it right, it's a Robo-Destroyer Bug..." I answered. I got out the Ion Ray again and shot a big hole in the back of the van.

"Doris! Hazel! We'll meet you at the Coney Island Aquarium!" They nodded and dispersed. The bug didn't seem to care about them, as it continued following us. I tried shooting it with the Ion Ray, but each time it hit it would ricochets off it. "Dang! It's immune to the Ion Ray!" I told the rest.

"Rico, destruction options!" Skipper ordered. Rico then regurgitated some frag grenades, a bazzoka they liked to use before and some dynamite. Skipper grabbed the bazzoka and shot the monstrosity. No effect. Ernie grabbed some frag grenades and tried those, but still had no effect. "Wait, give one of those sticks of dynamite..." I requested.

I took one of them and I regurgitated a bow and arrow set, with a roll of duct tape. I took the dynamite and stuck it to the end of an arrow using duct tape. They lit the fuse and I aimed it at the robot. "Here goes nothing..." I let the arrow go and it stuck itself in one of the robot's legs. It blew up, stumbling the beast. "Yeah! Take that!"

When it recovered, it gave out another deafening roar and out of its massive jaws it shot a grappling hook. "HIT THE DECK!" Skipper warned upon seeing the grappling hook. It shot right through the back door, opening up and holding the van in place. "Aah! Faster Malcom, faster!" Red screamed. "I'm trying!" he answered.

The van was now stuck in a giant game of tug of war between us and the bug. It gave a huge tug and the van was sent flying towards a building, where it got wrecked. The van now on its side, we climbed out, all of us covered in injuries from the broken glass and whatnot. "There's Coney Island!" said Nick, pointing in the distance.

"Make a run for it!" yelled Marlene. Malcom grabbed us in his giant arms and ran. The robot bug had no problem catching up, as it blocked the front entrance. He put us all down. "Go! I'll hold him off!" he said, pulling out his most used weapon, his electricity stick from the first time the penguins met him.

We all ran towards the entrance while Malcom tried distracting it. "Hey, bug face! Over here!" The bug sharply turned its attention to him, then back to us. It lifted one of its massive legs over us, right over to where Rico was headed. "RICO! WATCH OUT!" Before we knew it, Gem took a dive for Rico and she pushed him away in time, only to be caught under it instead.

"GEM!" we all yelled. Malcom ran forward and jumped onto the bug's leg, and he climbed all the way to its back. He put the power on the electricity stick to a dangerous level and stuck it into the robot's back. Sparks fell everywhere as the robot got short-circuited all over. After a minute or so, the giant beast fell over and its glowing red eyes died down.

"Gem!" We all ran to the half crushed penguin, only to find her in a bloody mess. "Don't look Private..." Private then buried his head into Ash's chest, afraid to look himself. Rico ran up to her, and surprisingly she was still alive. _"R-Rico...Yo-Your o...k...(Wheeze, Cough)..."_ she tried in a frail voice, but barely could.

"Your...Your gonna be alright. Just...hang on. We'll get help..." Skipper tried. He was about to look for help when she grabbed his flipper with her own bloodstained flipper. _"No...Ski...Skipper. It's...ok...as long...as Rico's...safe...I don't need...any help..."_ she said, trying to fake a smile. _"Can...Rico and I...talk...in private?"_ she asked. He understood and gave in to her request.

"Let's give them some privacy boys, and ladies..." ordered Skipper. We all left Rico with a dying Gem so she can say some last words. Rico knelt down, impossibly, so they can both see eye to eye. _"Rico...I know...this is hard...to understand...right now...but all...I have to say...before I go...is that I...will love you...forever..."_ she said. "Forever?" Rico repeated. _"For...ever..."_

With that last word, she breathed out her last breath and closed her eyes, a small half smile forming as it happened. "Gem...Gem..." Then, he just broke down and cried like he never had cried before. We all gathered round them, saddened by the lost. "We'll miss you Gem. You have been a great friend...and sister..." Ash said, which made us all either tear or burst into tears.

_A/N: And the chapter's over!_

_Private: Like I said…violent…_

_Me: And like I said…it's very mild. Your lucky I didn't go into detail…_

_Gem: Trust me, it ain't pretty…_

_Skipper: Wait, weren't you just killed…_

_Gem: (Glares)_

_Kowalski: Actually, the ones who are here are from the campfire, not the alternate dimension…_

_Skipper: Put a coin in the show-off jar Kowalski…_

_Kowalski: (Grumbles and puts coin in show-off jar)_

_Private: Can I say this one too?_

_Me: Why do you want to say my lines so bad?_

_Private: (Shrugs)_

_Me: Well, we can all say it. On the count of three…1…2…3!_

_Everyone: Till the next chapter, PLEASE REVIEW!_


	9. Chapter 8

_A/N: Hey ho hey ho we are back! (Turns around) And it seems that everyone had gone for a snowcone run, which will take them a while since we are in Singapore. This chapter may be a bit on the short side and may be a bit hard to understand, maybe, but that's what happens if you mix writer's block with a 3-day high fever. Anywho, enjoy!_

_Plus, thanks to all reviewers, and it seems more are reviewing, thanks! Oh, one last time to get off my mind, I don't list all my OCs in the disclaimer because if I did, it would be a very long list. I will, however, include all the OCs so far in the series after this story is done, along with the epilogue. PEACE!_

**Chapter 8:**  
_Unluckily Lucky_

_Campfire POV:_  
Everyone was saddened by this as well. Many were on the brink of tears, while some others just tried to hold it in. Rico then looked at Gem tearfully. "I don't want you go..." he grunted. "I don't want you to go either..." Gem replied. They got in a loving embrace, and were soon joined by their sons. "We won't leave you either..." they promised. I then continued on...

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
None of us knew what to do anymore. It was like we have forgotten everything we needed to do. All we felt like doing was to stand there, mourning over Gem's death and nothing else. We all just stood and cried, sobbed, teared or whatever for a good ten minutes before Ash said, "We can't leave her here, not like this. We need to...(Sniffle)...bury her..."

Rico nodded sadly in agreement, and slowly regurgitated a body bag. Ash and I helped him put Gem's...lifeless body...into the body bag and the three of us carried her to a grassy area just outside Coney Island. I regurgitated a shovel for him and he took it from me, intending to dig the hole himself. We just let him do it.

When the hole was finally dug, we slowly put her in it and he proceeded to slowly put the dirt back over the body bag. Throughout the whole process, Rico had a mix between a heartbroken face and a grimaced face. The rest just stood silent by the sidelines, unable to do anything either.

Ash then did the same thing she had done before and placed a grave marker, this time using the shovel. I gave a piece of paper, a pen and a roll of tape. She then wrote down another message to put onto the marker. She then taped it on the shovel, and we gave her another moment of silence. The paper read:

_Here lies Gemma Jones. Born 21 January 2001 - Died 26 December 2020._ (These are dates from our original dimension mixed with this dimension if you were wondering)

At the bottom, it said, _Rest in peace, for you have been a great sister and friend, for always being there for us, and for being who you truly are. We'll never forget you, and your memory will stay in our hearts forever._ Again, I read it out loud, Ash joining in as well, for those who can't read.

"I'm sorry for your loss..." said Malcom. "It wasn't your fault. She loved Rico so much she was willing to sacrifice her own life for his..." I answered. I shifted my gaze to Coney Island, looked back down and I sighed. "There's only one way to fix this..." I added, changing my expression to my serious one. "How? She's gone..." Ash replied tearfully.

I pointed at Coney Island and looked at her. "If Parker managed to change the fate of the universe by changing the past, then we can do the same..." She thought for a while, then nodded. "So, you're saying if we stop him from changing the past, then..." Ernie was about to finish, when I finished it for him. "None of this will ever happen and everything will be back to how it used to be; they way it's supposed to be..." I said.

This was when Doris and Hazel drove in. Apparently they've seen the whole thing, from behind an abandoned bus. "We're sorry about what happened to Gem..." they said, saddened watching the scene happen. "That's alright...(Sniffle)..." Ash assured. "We do have a possible way to make the wrongs right again..." Nick said.

"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Hazel, trying to motivate us. We all looked at Gem's grave one last time and we looked at each other, nodding once. "Let's go and fix all this..." Skipper said. The rest started heading into Coney Island while Ash walked back to Gem's grave. "You guys go on first; we'll catch up..." I told them.

I went over to Ash's side and we stared at Gem's grave for a while. "Don't worry Ash. I promise I will undo all of this, because right now, losing is not an option..." She looked back at me, slightly crying again. "I know you will Josh..." She gave me a hug and I patted her back softly. "Cause you're  
the best kind of friend anyone can ever have..." she added.

When we separated from the hug, I turned around and regurgitated a small, golden, heart-shaped locket and held it out to Ash. "Is that my?" I nodded. She took the locket and opened it, revealing two pictures inside. The picture on the left half was Gem's and the other was Ash's. They were both in their human form and there were a few words engraved behind the locket.

It said, _Welcome to the Family! Love - Gem._ It was the locket Gem gave to Ash when her parents adopted Ash after her real parents died. Ash turned around and knew what to do. She went back to the grave and put the locket on top of where Gem wad buried at. "Keep this, so you will remember us forever..." she said, standing back up.

"Let's go..." With her request, we made our way to Seaville Aqua-Fun Park where Coney Island Aquarium was located at. The rest were just waiting for us behind some of the booths near Seaville. _"What took you so long?"_ asked Skipper in a whisper. _"Long story. Why are you all waiting here for?"_ I asked. Malcom pointed above the entrance of Seaville.

_"Of course he would add cameras just outside the lair..."_ I whispered sarcastically. I scanned the area and I spotted a manhole nearby. _"Follow me. There is another entrance hidden in the sewers..."_ We creeped to the manhole and Rico used a crowbar to remove the cover. We then climbed down to the murky depths.

"Where to now?" asked Red. I lead them through the maze-like tunnels until we found a big crack in a wall. I reached my flipper inside of it and pulled a level. A door then opened right beside where the crack was. "This should be rather safe, cause he forgot about this entrance because it was...well, it's pretty obvious..." I said, glancing at the sewers around us.

"I found it while looking at the building plans..." I added. We went down the spiraling ramp for a few minutes and it lead to a room. "This...is the panic room. And..." I went to the opposite wall and pressed the button on it. Another doorway opened up. "This leads to the weapons vault, which doubles as a blueprint storage room..." I stated.

We pushed away a moving weapons' cabinet to reveal a room filled with all kinds of weapons, ranging from small ray guns to submarines, medium ones of course. There were tables near where we were that had many blueprints of various inventions, most marked with Blowhole's signature. But mounted on a wall far off on the right side of the room was another blueprint, but this seemed different.

We went over to it and examined it, only leading to a couple of gasps. The name of the blueprint was 'Chronotron' in an unknown handwriting and it wasn't marked with Blowhole's signature, but with a small flipper print on the bottom left-hand corner of it. There was also a small plaque below it saying 'Parker's Secret Weapon'.

"I'm guessing this is how he managed to mess with the timeline..." I said. "How did he get this? I remember I threw this plan...oh, nevermind..." Kowalski rubbed the back of his head, realizing his mistake. "That is why we dispose of any classified files and plans my way..." Skipper gloated. Kowalski reached for the plan and took it down from the wall, then rolling it up.

"We better make sure Parker doesn't get this back..." Kowalski stated. Rico swallowed it and I showed them the way to main room. There was a map near the main entrance of the weapons vault. "Ok, we are here, this here is the main room and these are the lobsters' rooms..." I said as I pointed out the various locations.

There was one, on the second floor, room that I have yet to see. "And this is the room that I have never seen before. This was not in the building plan..." Skipper then held his stomach in slight pain. "That's the one Parker is in..." We turned to face him. "How are you sure?" asked Malcom. "I can feel it in my gut..." Skipper answered.

"Well then, that's where we're going, cause I bet he is keeping the Chronotron there..." I checked the map again. "We can take staircase B7 to get there..." We peeked out the door to check for patrolling lobsters. There were none, so we proceeded on to the unknown room. We followed the long hallway to try and locate staircase B7.

I gestured everyone to stop and I checked around the corner. Nobody. I gestured again to proceed on. _"Is it just me or does this seem too easy?"_ Skipper whispered. _"Possibly, but at this time, most of the lobsters are either in their rooms, doing surveillance duty or in the game room. Only a few will be doing sentry duty..."_ I replied as we scaled the steps.

When we made it to the second floor from the basement (Yeah, Blowhole's lair is HUGE...), we gazed upon the straight-shot hallway that stood before us. There were no lobsters at all here and the room we were looking for was at the end. Red was about to take a step forward when I stopped her. _"What's wrong? The room's right there..."_ she groused.

_"When in any secret lair, never trust your eyes. Rico..."_ With my request, he got out some small bouncy balls and threw them down the hallway. Instantly, some of them got cut in half. _"High-powered lasers, of course..."_ I turned back to Rico and he nodded. Then, he suddenly was about to sneeze and he sneezed some white powder...all over me.

_"Do I look like lasers to you?"_ I joked, coughing out the powder and dusting it off. _"Sorry..."_ He did it again, this time correctly, and revealed the lasers. _"That's better..."_ I then examined the pattern from where we stood. _"Well, there's only one way to get through..."_ I said. They looked at me, curious. _"We dance our way through..."_ Skipper and I said at the same time.

_"Jinx! You owe me a herring..."_ I gloated. Rico then took out an MP3 player with headphones and I took out my signature duct tape, and by 'took out', I mean regurgitate. _"Ernie, will you do the honours of dancing through that laser field?"_ I asked him. _"Why me?"_ he griped. _"Because, lemurs can jump higher than us, you know more dance moves than us and..."_

_"Ok, I get it. Just give me the player before I change my mind..."_ he groaned. Immediately, we put the headphones on him and taped the player to his arm, wrapping the cord loosely around it and taping it in place. Then, we played Jumpstart by These Kids Wear Crowns on the MP3 player. _"Here goes nothing..."_

When the music started, he jumped forward, landing on his knees and sliding under the lasers he was an inch away from cutting himself. Then, he got up very straight, fitting perfectly between the lasers around him. We watched suspensfully as he leaped at least two feet of the ground and doing a perfect roll toward a wall, where he skillfully pushed himself away from, sliding flat on his back to the opposite end of the hallway. He was now halfway through.

He just leapt, rolled and slid through the mess of lasers, always getting just an inch away from either losing a limb, his tail or even decapitating himself. We all held our breath when he jumped till he reached the ceiling and falling back down, failing the roll. We let a sigh when he slid towards a lone laser, just for him to stop himself just before he sliced his head in half.

He slowly crawled under it and stood up, finding himself on the other end of the room, where the lasers just ceased to exist. He took off the headphones and pulled the lever beside him, turning the lasers off. We gave him a small salute and we proceeded through. _"Excellent work Ernie. You should really join my team after all this..."_ Skipper commented on Ernie's victory.

_"I already am in your team..."_ Ernie simply answered. _"Um, how do we open the door?"_ asked Malcom, pointing at a beast-looking security lock by the door, complete with retina scanners and that such. _"Ernie can do that, again..."_ I handed over the Smartphone 2.0 to him and he connected it to the security lock. _"Ok, it should work with any anything now..."_ Ernie said.

He put his eye on the retina scanner and good, it was a pass. Then he typed in one letter and it worked as well. He did the same with the handprint, pawprint, flipperprint, whatever scanner and it unlocked the door. _"Yeah, hacker of the year..."_ he boasted. We opened the door slowly and checked the surroundings.

There was a whole bunch of papers stuck to a notice board on the left side of the room and there was an office-looking table on the right side that contained things you mostly use for making plans. Nobody was in the room, so we just slowly walked in. We all went over to the notice board and examined it. The papers were arranged in a flowchart manner.

The first paper had a picture of two lookalike platypuses, one holding on to a rolled up piece of paper. The next one had a picture of one platypus building what looks like the Chronotron. After that, it pointed to a picture of a platypus holding a grenade and hiding behind some boxes. In the background were some penguins, which appeared to be the team, testing what looked like the Trans-Dimenter.

I didn't need to look at the rest to figure his plan out. Everything had a big red tick on it except the last one, which instead had the words 'Get rid of Josh and Nick once and for all'. _"Great Scotts. He messed with the timeline by destroying the Trans-Dimenter before Kowalski could activate it..."_ I inferred. We turned to Red, who was looking at a room that says 'Keep Out!'

_"I bet that's where the Chronotron is..."_ We went over to it and opened the door, revealing the Chronotron, but with someone extra in front of it. "Hello, Josh and Nick Everett. Looking for something?" It was Parker himself, with a gas mask on. Before we could react, he knocked us out with a knockout gas bomb, which seemed a bit penguin-like to do.

_A/N: Ok, that was another crazy cliffhanger! What happens next? Find out in the next chapter, which may come out a bit later, or next Saturday. I posted this one earlier for two reasons. One, it's done, duh. Two, I'm going Batam for a day (Better than nothing) so the whole weekend I'm away, and I'm afraid there is no internet there. Till then…_

_Everyone: R&R!_

_Me: When did you guys get here!? You gave me a heart attack!_


	10. Chapter 9

_A/N: Sorry for not posting earlier, I was away in Batam…again…and I have no internet there. Anyway, here's the next chapter, which I can say that it is not my best work, suffering some serious writer block but I'll pull through._

_Thanks to all the reviewers and have an awesome time. Please, you may read on…_

**Chapter 9:**  
_An Explosive Battle_

We all awake in cages, again. I sat up, ignoring the pain that was clinging to my head. We were in the main room now, just hanging a few feet from the ground. There were three cages around me. The one I was in contained me, Skipper, Private, Red and Doris. The second one to my left had Rico, Kowalski, Nick, Ernie and Hazel. The third one on my right had Malcom.

"I hate knockout bombs sometimes..." I mumbled. At this time, the rest were coming to as well. "Urgh...Oh man, seriously?" mumbled Skipper irritably. "Where's that Parker guy! I swear I'm going to punch him where the sun never shines!" yelled Ernie angrily. "Looking for me?" a familiar voice said. We turned around to find Parker, by the Chronotron.

"There you are, duck face!" Ernie taunted. "What! My face does not look like...nevermind..." he replied, looking at his bill. "Yeah, that's right, flat head!" Ernie continued. "Hey!" both Parker and Skipper yelled. "Oh, you're referring to him? Forget I said anything..." Skipper requested, hiding his face. "What do you want Parker?!" I asked after the tauntings.

"What do I want? Blowhole! Play the recording!" As he said that, Blowhole, who was opposite Parker at the computers, saluted. "Yes master!" he said, then pressing a button on his segway, that ejects a CD. He puts it in the computer and plays the recording on it. "Hello, is this thing on?" said the Parker in the recording.

"Ok, Josh, Nick, if you are listening to this, which you should, as based by the information the future me gave me, then I bet you're wondering what my exact plan is. Well, that is simple..." he then goes off-screen and comes back carrying the rolled-up paper from the picture. He unrolls it front of the camera, revealing the blueprints for the Chronotron.

"This, this is my plan. This blueprint, given to me by the future me, who claims to have found it in a dumpster in Central Park Zoo..." Kowalski smiled nervously as Skipper store him down. "Is what's gonna be the downfall of the world, as I had intended from my original plan with the robot bugs, but failed because of those annoying Everetts!" He then took a deep breath.

"As I was saying, I'm going to build this baby and go back in time, where I will destroy the cause of my failure, and when they appear 12 years later, as told to me by the future me, I'm gonna get rid of them, for good, and seal this fate..." After that, he just burst into evil laughter, and that was when the video cut.

"You're absolutely out of your mind, aren't you?" Red said. "I mean, what's the point of taking over the world!" she added, throwing her arms up for effect. "You want to know why, my dear? Well, I'll tell you why!" He turned his back towards us as he went on to relate his backstory.

_Backstory POV (With Parker's Narration):_  
"Well, you see, back when I was younger, I was smart, and I loved inventing. It was like my hobby. I lived in the wilderness of California, near the Three Rivers. I would always sit at my favourite table the beavers made for me for hours, just writing new invention blueprints and inventing to my heart's desire. But, one faithful day, 'it' happened..."

(Younger Parker sat at his favourite table, writing yet another blueprint for an invention called the 'Sub-Atomic Molecule Disentanglizer'. He had finally gotten the necessary parts to build it, so he was checking the blueprints again to make it wouldn't end in disaster. He smiled and went on to building it...)

"I was just, doing what I always did, building another one of my planned inventions, minding my own business. I was nearing completion after about two hours of work, when my mom called for me to have dinner. I just...had to keep her waiting, if...if I had known what was gonna happen, then I would have gone out, but I didn't, until it was too late..."

("Looking good so far. Let's see what I have left..." Young Parker praised himself as he looked at his work so far on his invention. _"Parker! Time for dinner!"_ yelled a female voice. "Five more minutes mom! I just need to install my ion battery!" Young Parker requested. _"Alright. Five more minutes..."_ the female, his mom, replied.)

(A few minutes later, Young Parker finished the invention. Excited, he picked up his gun-looking device, eager to show his parents what he had created. His parents always loved and encouraged whatever he invented, even after the last time he almost blew up half of the river they lived by. He quickly ran out, but to his surprise, no one was there. Then, a gunshot echoed through the dark of the night...)

"When I heard that gunshot, I ran as fast as I could to where it came from, hoping and praying that my family wasn't there. But, when I got there, I couldn't believe my eyes. Right there, in front of me, stood a tall man carrying a hunting rifle, and he was aiming it at something brown and red. I could see my mom backed up against the tree, and her eyes were filled with fear..."

(After the deafening gunshot that was disguised as thunder, Young Parker ran as fast as he could to its source. He reached the clearing where he would usually test his inventions at, to find a tall man, in what seemed like a hunter's outfit, carrying a hunting rifle. He seemed to be aiming it at a brownish-red figure. He looked up from the figure to find his mom, cornered into a tree, looking as scared as ever...)

(When his mom's eyes met Young Parker's, his mom mouthed the word 'Run', but what sparked his anger and fear was the second booming gunshot, this time so loud that he could feel the ringing in his earholes. He looked up, only to see his mom, shot through his chest. "NOOO!" he screamed. The hunter turned around, making Young Parker regret screaming. The hunter then aimed his gun at him...)

"I was just as scared as any 12 year old would be, seeing your own parents get murdered in cold blood. But when I screamed and saw the hunter eye-to-eye, I could see that he actually enjoyed what he did. He felt no regret or pain for what he had done. When he aimed his rifle at me, I knew I had to do something or I would get killed...so...I did the unthinkable..."

(Fear engulfed Young Parker like a shroud of darkness. Time seemed to slow down as the hunter slowly pressed the trigger. Then, at that moment, Young Parker remembered what he was carrying. His Sub-Atomic Molecule Disentanglizer. Without thinking whether it would work or not, he aimed it at the hunter and pulled the trigger before the hunter could...)

(A blinding, multicolored beam shot out from his creation, making contact with the hunter's rifle, causing it to gradually glow as bright as the beam, where it just disintegrates. Shocked, the hunter quickly pulled out his knife, but Young Parker had already pulled the trigger a second time, replying the earlier events with the hunter himself. Then, he turned to dust...)

"My invention worked perfectly, but it was already too late..."

(Young Parker looked upon what he had just done. He had just killed a man, but he just kept thinking 'It was self-defense. It was self-defense' in his mind to calm himself down. Then, he remembered his parents. He ran for his mom, who was bleeding badly but otherwise still holding on. "Mom!" he yelled as he hugged her. He knew it was a bad idea, her being severely injured and all...)

(He went up to her, trying to hold the tears back but failed. _"Parker...I told you...to run...and save...yourself..."_ she said in a soft, painful whisper. "But I didn't want to leave you. I...I couldn't...run away from all this..." His mom groaned in pain. _"It's ok...sweetie. Just...remember...that I...will always...love you...son..."_ Then, she faded away, closing her eyes peacefully...)

_Flashback POV (Normal POV):_  
"After she left, I just let it all out. I cried up a monsoon and I couldn't do anything to undo what happened. After I buried them, I just...ran away. I ran and ran and ran, carrying our only family picture that I took before I left. And as I ran, I swore to them that I would take revenge on the humans for they were killed by them..." He turned back to face us, holding a photo.

"After I ran for at least a mile away from home, I happened to stumble upon an amusement park. I quickly took refuge under the bleachers at aquarium of the place. I slept for the rest of the night there, using some lost sweater I found as a blanket. The next day, I woke up to a screaming crowd. I immediately got up and looked around. It was only the audience..."

Parker glanced at Blowhole, and focused his attention back to us. "I peeked through the seats to find some dolphins doing tricks. I was disgusted seeing that animals were being held captive and forced to do tricks against their will. So, I had an idea. When night fell, I waited for the rest of the dolphins to leave to go on some...outing...and I overheard that one of them wanted to stay. The one that stayed was him..."

We turned our attention to Blowhole, who was rubbing his robotic eye like a memory just got triggered. "But, when I called to him to try and befriend him, well, I guess you two know the rest of the story..." Parker finished, directing that last line to Nick and I. "When you called, he slammed his face on the Ring of Fire as he was practicing, which burnt his eye..." I said.

"Then you kidnapped him, and tricked him into hating humans as much as you so that you can use him..." Nick continued for me. "Aah, but you forgot. I taught him everything I knew about science and inventing and even gave him that mechanical eye. He's thankful that I saved him, and he doesn't care that I tricked him, don't you?" Blowhole shook his head.

"See? No anger whatsoever..." He turned back to one of the tables and picked up a gun-looking device. "Now, in order for my revenge plan against the humans to go smoothly, I'm afraid I have to get rid of the two of you..." he said. "WAIT! Can we at least do one last thing?" He lowered the gun and grumbled. "Make it quick, but I'm watching you..." he said.

I took out a metal cup and placed it open-side down one the cage floor. "This goes to everyone, before you get rid of us. Just...something I told myself to do before I die, that's all..." With my mini-speech, I started to play Cups (When I'm Gone) by Anna Kendrick, singing as I make the beat with the metal cup.

_Josh (Verse 1):_  
_I've got my ticket for the long way run_  
_Two bottle whiskies for the way_

_And I sure would like some sweet company_  
_And I'm leaving for tomorrow_  
_What do you say?_

_Josh (Chorus):_  
_When I'm gone (x2)_  
_You're gonna miss me when I'm gone_

_You're gonna miss me by my hair_  
_You're gonna miss me everywhere_  
_Yeah, you sure are gonna miss me_  
_When I'm gone..._

When I started to sing the second part of the chorus, I start slamming the cup harder and harder onto the metal floor of the cage, causing it to shake vigorously.

_Josh (Chorus Continued):_  
_When I'm gone (x2)_  
_You're gonna miss me when I'm gone_

_You're gonna miss me by my talk_  
_You're gonna miss me by my walk_  
_Yeah, you sure are gonna miss me_  
_WHEN I'M GONE!_

I slammed the cup down as hard as I could when I finished, causing the cage floor to break off and fall to the real floor, with us on it. The rest stared in awe and Parker stood stunned. "What! How did you..." I did a jump kick at him before he could finish, knocking him down. "Quantum Vibration Cup..." I said simply.

"Skipper! Free the rest! This is our fight..." I requested. Parker signalled the lobsters and Blowhole not to attack. "Well then, bring it!" Skipper unlocked the cages and Nick, Ash and Ernie joined me. "Alright. You mess with us, then you get us..." Ernie added. We all took a fighting pose and he did too. "What do we do?" asked Skipper. "End his plan..." I said.

"Lobsters, and Blowhole, attack the rest!" Parker ordered. Then, the four of us charged towards Parker while the lobsters and Blowhole charged at the rest of the group as they ran for the controls.

"You're all gonna lose and I'm gonna win! And there isn't anything that can change that!" Parker yelled as he skillfully dodged our attacks. The rest were desperately trying to get to the controls and end the current phase of his plan. Then, he kicked us all away, grabbing Ash in the process. "And so I can win for sure..."

He took out a needle filled with who-knows-what and plunged it into her neck, causing her to scream in pain. Private turned around upon hearing her scream. "Ash!" he yelled, fighting his way to her. Parker threw her aside and grabbed the gun-looking device from before. "Now face the wrath of the Sub-Atomic Molecule Disentanglizer!" he proclaimed.

"Disperse!" I yelled as he took a shot at us, narrowly escaping being turned to dust. "Missed it by that much!" Ernie taunted. In the sidelines, Private just made it to Ash, who was lying static on the floor. He held her head up with his flipper, where she turned to look at him with half-open eyes.

"Ash! Are you alright!?" Private asked, desperate to know her condition. _"Private...(Moan)...Oh, I'm sorry...that this happened. I just..."_ Private held his flipper to her mouth, shushing her. "It's not you're fault. Oh, I just...wish I could have done something to prevent this..." he said, starting to cry. Surprisingly, no one bothered them, like they weren't even there in the first place.

_"Private?"_ Ash asked. "Yes Ash?" Private asked as he held her, crying over her. _"You want to know...the best part of today was?"_ Private nodded as tear fell from his eyes. _"The best part...is that I got to fall in love with you...all over again..."_ Private let out a laugh through his crying. "I agree with that all the way..." He then kissed her passionately as life drained from her.

As they kissed, Ash's grip on Private's left flipper slowly slackened, to Private's despair. He pulled away, only to realise that his true love had just passed on. "Ash? Ash!? No no no no no! Wake up!" He shook her, hoping her closed eyes would open like a blooming flower. "NOOO!" he screamed. He put her down slowly and faced Parker, filled with rage.

"I AM SO GONNA KILL YOU!" he screamed again, charging towards Parker. "Aah! Gotta go!" He ran for the Chronotron. "This will deal with you all!" He took out a remote (Where the heck does he keep all this stuff?) and pressed a button, activating a 30 self-destruct. "Sayonara, suckers!" He grabbed a rolled-up blueprint and jumped through the now activated Chronotron.

All the lobsters immediately evacuated when they heard the self-destruct. "Josh! Go get him! We'll take care of it here!" yelled Nick. "What about you guys!? I can't abandon you now!" They all told me to go, refusing to follow me. I went over to the Chronotron, but I turned back. "I promise I'll fix all this..." I said.

Just then, Blowhole tackled me and pinned me to the ground. "You're not going anywhere, pen-gu-win! You die, I die!" he said firmly. "Blowhole! Let go! You're not yourself!" He wouldn't listen. I just had 15 seconds to get him off and get through the portal. "FRANCIS! LET GO!" I yelled. He looked shocked. "How do you..."

"Yes, I know who you are, Francis. Remember...Remember who you are!" When I yelled that, a waterfall of memories flooded his mind, causing him to groan in pain. I got up, happier that calling him his real name triggered hundreds of memories, so many that it hurts. "Remember Francis. Reme..." Before I could finish, the whole base blew up, the shockwave launching me back.

_A/N: Yeah, not the best cliffhanger…Ok, so please R&R or Parker will find you and zap you with his Sub-Atomic Molecule Disentanglizer. Anywho, hope you all enjoyed and a little hint, a new story will be out soon! Yay! Peace out y'all!_


	11. Chapter 10

_A/N: Yes! I conquered the writer's block! With the help of my friend, Jeray, of course. Well, this is not my best chapter, I can say that, but it makes sense the least. So, please enjoy this last chapter…before the last two OVERTIME chapters! (It's overtime because the story being told is finished)_

**Chapter 10:**  
_All's Well, End's Well_

When I was launched back, I luckily went through the portal of the Chronotron. But as I fell through the tunnel-like light, I could see events that occurred before appear amongst the light. I could hear what they were saying. I could even feel what they felt as I gazed at the images. Their memories were being absorbed by me.

I looked away from the images for a few seconds, as my mind was starting to hurt from the extra memories. Then, I fell out into what appeared to be Blowhole's lair, but how it looked like when Nick and I first came here. The missile was in the center of the room, but there weren't any lobsters around. I picked myself up and tried to stand up.

"Ok, where would Parker be at?" I asked myself. "I've got it...the HQ. This must be the day Kowalski tested the Trans-Dimenter. I need to stop him..." I started down one of the hallways and out through the exit. My feathers and body was slightly burned from the heat of the explosion just as the shockwave launched me through the Chronotron.

When I got out, I quickly got into a bellyslide, ignoring the pains of the burns as I made my way to Central Park Zoo. It was in the early hours of morning, just as dawn was breaking. "Finally..." I said when I got to Central Park. I could see Parker running into the zoo. He wasn't carrying the blueprints anymore, so I assumed that he had given it to the him in this time.

"Parker!" I yelled as I went after him. He ran into Marlene's habitat and I followed. Nobody was inside so I guessed that Marlene had went over to the penguin HQ. I climbed down the sewer grate that was in her habitat and I saw Parker making a run for the 1st Prize entrance. Just as he was about to enter, I tackled him to the ground.

"Get off me! I've got my fate to seal!" he yelled. "I don't think so!" I took a swing at him but he took a step closer and used my momentum to his advantage, judo-flipping me. I landed in a roll and got up without missing a beat, then charged at him again. He tried to sweep my feet of the ground with his tail but I managed to jump away from it, landing behind him.

He took the opportunity to continue swinging his tail to complete a full round and try to knock me down. I didn't manage to dodge that attack and I landed hard on my back. "That's enough from you!" he yelled, running through the 1st Prize door. I painfully got up and followed quietly so they won't notice me.

The lab door was wide open, so I peeked in to see all four of them along with Marlene standing around the Trans-Dimenter, backs turned to the door. I stealthily snuck in and hid behind some boxes to the right of the door. Parker was hidden behind the lab table on my right. There was the door to the weapons vault. As I crept slowly towards him, he entered the room.

"Please Kowalski, make this quick! We got an important mission today and the world depends on us to find out more on Blowhole's plan!" Skipper groused. "Just double checking to make sure everything is in order before I turn it on..." Kowalski said. "Ok, behold...The Trans-Dimensional Teleporter!" he proclaimed.

I entered the armory to find Parker looking for a grenade. "Parker! Stop this madness, now!" I yelled. The armory was completely soundproof, so I could scream all I want in here without them noticing. "Gah! Take this you annoying Everett!" He started throwing random knives from the shelves but I managed to get behind a weapon stand before one could hit me.

"Come on out and fight like the penguin you are!" Parker taunted. I looked to my right and found a riot shield. I grabbed it and emerged from my hiding place, where in turn Parker threw more knives. "You can't win Parker! You know very well that time is an unchangeable thing!" I explained as I edged closer to him. When he ran out of knives, I threw the shield at him but he punched it away. "We'll see about that!" he said as he tackled me.

Kowalski activated the Trans-Dimenter and the machine started revving. "Ok, the portal should appear above our habitat..." Kowalski stated, which made them leave the lab to head up top. Coincidentally, Parker and I blasted through the door in a platypus-and-penguin dog pile. He pushed me hard to the side and I slammed against the wall. He then pulled out a grenade that he took from the armory and was about to pull the pin.

Before he could though, I grabbed his arm and we fought for the grenade. "You ain't gonna win this round Everett!" He used one finger to pull the pin off and he threw it at the machine. Simultaneously, he pinned me to the ground as I watched the grenade blow the Trans-Dimenter up.

The rumbling of the ground caused by the explosion made the team on the little island above fall into the pool. Kowalski climbed up to the island of their habitat. "Good golly wolly! My Teleporter exploded!" he screamed, then quickly climbed down to his lab.

The lab was now covered in scorch marks from the explosion. I was covered head to toe with the black powder. I heard the door rumble, but when I looked at it, the Trans-Dimenter lay destroyed, blocking the door. I stood up and coughed, Parker doing just the same. _"See...(Cough, Cough, Cough)...Everett. I still win...(Cough)"_ he gloated.

But as I looked at him, he was turning translucent. "What!? No! I destroyed it! Why am I disappearing!" he said. A remote then dropped from his fur. "Because, it was on long enough for us to pass through, so you don't exist..." Then, he disappeared into nothingness, for good. I picked up the remote and noticed it was the same one as the Josh that came to me before this happened. "One last thing to do..."

I punched in the date and time and pressed the button, causing me to fade away. Just as that was happening, the door burst open. I turned around to see Kowalski, and I just smiled as I disappeared. "Who in Newton's Knickers was that?" he asked himself. Just then, the rest of the team joined the dazed Kowalski. "Oh man. This is gonna take a while to fix...snowcone anyone?" Skipper asked.

I fell through the same void of light again, this time it was a fast forward. The wounds on me quickly healed and I was a-ok once again as I materialized at the foot of that same tree just outside the zoo, near where we played football. _"Now, I just got to tell myself what to do..."_ I called out to the Josh playing football and I regretted it as I watched the whole scene unfold.

_"Oops. So that's what happened..."_ I called to him again and he saw me. _"Alright, I climbed the tree, but for...oh..."_ I looked up to see the remote device sitting on one of the branches. I sighed and proceeded to climb it and get the remote back. When I got the remote, I could hear them below. _"Now to get..."_ Then, the branch broke off and I fell down.

"Are you...me?" he asked. _"Whoa, this is so dejavu..."_ I whispered in my head. "Yup. You from an alternate dimension...and time..." I said. _"Ok, this is starting to get awkward..."_ I whispered in my head again. "Now, listen. I don't have much time, so here's the summary. When time changes, look for the Resistance. Join them and ask them to help you stop Parker before he..."

A sudden ringing started. _"What, seriously!? You gonna do this to me!"_ I groused in my head. "I can't stay any longer. I have to go now..." I told him. "Wait! What Resistance!? And Parker?" he asked. I took out the remote thing that acts like a Chronotron and pressed the button. "Just remember what I said..." I said, fading away.

Campfire POV:  
"I went through the void of light again for the third and final time, arriving as the Josh you saw hugging everyone in sight a few hours ago..." I finished. "How can we be sure this is true?" asked a skeptical Blowhole. I then regurgitated the remote device and showed it off. "This proof enough for ya?" I asked.

They all nodded and I went over to where the fireworks were set up at. "What are you doing?" asked Kowalski. "Getting rid of the thing that can ruin everything if I don't destroy it..." I said as I tied the remote device, which I guess I can call the Pocket Chronotron, to one of the fireworks. "Alright, Brandon, Carl and Rico, light the sky up..." I said.

The three then happily light of the fireworks, causing them to fly into the night sky and burst into a mesmerizing star of sparkles and light. They launched a few more and we cheered as we watched the fireworks explode. "Now...we all only have one final thing to do, and it comes in two phases..." I said, then explaining the plan to the whole group.

_A/N: Alright! That was it! The last chapter of book, 4 before the two OVERTIME chapters. After this will be book 5 or part 5 if you may, and I have the intro of that all done. It went through lots of edits, so I hope it sounds better when I post it. Till then, R&R!_

_(I do not own Red, FYI, she belongs to Ivy000, who was kind enough to make her randomly for the story. Oh, her real name will be revealed in the next chapter…)_


	12. Chapter 11

_A/N: Ok, sorry for not posting last week, but I'll make it up to y'all by posting five, today! Ok, I had been coming up with new story ideas like nobody's business that I almost lost track of what I haven't finished. So, enjoy this Overtime Chapter and the next one!_

**Chapter 11:**  
_Going Into Overtime_

Skipper's team and my group, along with Marlene, headed off into the city in the two lookalike penguin coups. Kowalski and Rico had decided to make a second one a while ago and they even expanded the seating capacity. "Hey Josh! I forgot to tell you something..." Kowalski yelled to me as the two coups drove side-by-side. It was awesome that they let me drive this time, since I was just about as reckless as Rico.

"What is it?" I asked. I heard Kowalski clear his throat. "That was you I saw that day!? A few hours earlier before you guys arrived!?" I nodded. "Yeah! You should have seen your face. I would have taken a picture but I couldn't..." I joked before swerving away from the wheels of a taxi. "Sorry!" I apologised to my passengers.

"Hey guys! There it is!" Marlene said as she pointed at the Animal Control Centre. We parked the coups in an alleyway just outside the building and all made our way in by the back entrance. Luckily we avoided the searchlights and the patrolling guards, so getting in was smooth. "Ok, now what?" asked Skipper as we looked at the dozens of rooms or animal 'cells'.

"Look for her, duh..." I said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Skipper rolled his eyes and then split us into teams of two each; him with Marlene, Private with me, Kowalski with Ernie, Ash with Gem and Nick with Rico. Then, we started our search for...her.

Most of the rooms were empty, as expected, so the search was progressing really slowly. We had almost no luck finding her. A few hours later, we gathered back at square 1 and tried to think of plan B. Just as we stood there, Marlene got bored and sat on some boxes. To her surprise, the floor gave way and she fell down through a trap door.

"Oof!" she said painfully as she landed flat on her back. "Marlene! Are you alright!?" Skipper asked full of concern as we peeked down at room the trap door had revealed. It was about a five foot drop and the small amount of light was not helping at all; we could only see Marlene's hazel eyes glow in the darkness. "Yeah! Just...stuck down here at the moment..." she replied as she got up and dusted herself off.

"Stay there! We're gonna get you out! Rico, rope!" Skipper said. Rico did as told and they dropped down the rope to Marlene. She was about to climb up when she heard what sounded like a whimper in the darkness. "Who's there!?" she asked. No reply. "What are you waiting for Marlene!?"

"Skipper, I think there's someone down here. Can you pass me a flashlight?" Skipper nodded and Rico regurgitated a flashlight to Marlene. She caught it and turned it on, shining the beam of light all around her. The room looked bigger now that there was adequate light to be able to see properly. As she continued looking around, a little bit of red in the distance caught her eye.

She pointed the flashlight there to find who we had been looking for. "Guys! I think I found Red!" she yelled. "Really? Ok, we're heading down there!" We tied the rope to a lone wooden beam tightly and we all climbed down to Marlene's discovery. "See? Over there..." said Marlene.

"Yup, that's her alright. Red! Red!" I called. She then looked up with tear-filled eyes. We headed towards her to find her in a metal cage, chained to the bars of it. "W-Who...are you?" she asked in a sad, scared and shy tone. "We are here to get you out of here Red..." I said to her as she grasped on the bars. Kowalski started picking the lock and Rico was cutting the chain.

"Red? Please...call me Liv. My name is Olivia Summers-Skye..." she requested. "Nice to meet you Liv. My name's Marlene Summers. You can call me Marlene..." Liv gave her a strange look. "Summers? As in the Summers Family in California? That Summers?" Marlene nodded, wondering how she knew that. Then, Liv gave her a hug from behind the bars.

"Family has found me again. Oh Marlene...I missed everyone back at the aquarium..." she said, crying. "What is she talking about?" asked Ash and Gem in unison. Ernie made an annoyed face, but didn't say a word. "I-I'm...Marlene's cousin. My f-family is the S-Skye Family...M-Marlene's dad's b-brother's family..." she staggered between sobs.

Marlene couldn't believe her ears. She found...her cousin? A real member of her family after all the years she had lived at Central Park Zoo? She returned the hug, also starting to tear. "Well, let's get you outta here, ok?" Liv nodded without withdrawing from the hug. Just as that was happening, Kowalski managed to unlock the cage and Rico managed to cut the chain off.

Now, all of us, Liv included, made our way up the rope. Liv's right leg was weak from being chained to the cage, so Ernie offered to help her up the rope. We all got out, safe and sound. We closed the trap door behind us and headed over to exit the building via back door, but when we opened it, a tall burly figure stood before us.

"I thought I smelled penguins..." It was Officer X, or now known as Malcom X. He was wearing a navy blue T-shirt with grey pants and his favourite black boots. Too bad he wasn't wearing his signature sunglasses. "You all had forgotten my apartment is right beside this place, haven't you?" His gaze landed on Liv, who was being supported by Marlene.

"Olivia! How did you get out!" They all glanced at me. "Told you he understands us..." I gloated arrogantly. "Yeah, smarty penguin..." He looked weirdly at me. "I've never seen you before. Do I know you?" I took up a fighting stance and glared at him. "Not in this dimension, Malcom...Ernie! Round the house and back again!"

Then, he grabbed my flippers and I swung him at Malcom, doing what looked like an extended Roundhouse kick, only it was Ernie's entire body instead of one leg. Malcom fell over and we all quickly ran over him, Liv now being carried by Rico, piggyback style. We all piled in the coups and hit the gas, where we all escaped at breakneck speeds.

"Round the house and back again? Where do you learn these? You've got to teach me that..." Skipper commented as we drove side-by-side. "We make them up on Free-Running Fridays, and sure, we can teach you..." I said. "So, why is it I never knew you?" asked Marlene. "Well, you see, I ran away..." Liv replied. She was sitting with Skipper and the rest; in the back seat between Marlene and Private.

"Why'd you run away?" Liv looked away, and replied with two words. "Abusive parents..." Marlene sat and tried her best to absorb what she was just told. Abusive parents? She always thought the Skye family was nice. When she asked her, she said being nice was their mask, that they were bad on the inside. "I couldn't take it, so I ran away. I managed to sneak into a plane and it sent me here..."

"I lived at wherever was fit enough to live at. Inside trees, in abandoned boxes and even just under park benches. Then, he found me and locked me down there. I had been down there for over a year..." Marlene and Private gave her a hug. Why Private too? He is caring, he understood and she looked like she needed it. "Thank you..." Liv said.

"Don't worry now Liv. You're around friends and family. It's alright..." Marlene assured. Liv started to cry again, over Marlene's shoulder, but this wasn't tears of sorrow; these were tears of joy. "Don't worry Liv, Kowalski and I will get you transferred in with Marlene when we get back..." Skipper implied. "Ok Josh. Where to?" he asked me. "Parker..." I said simply.

_A/N: YAY! We found Liv! Oh, by the way, Liv/Red doesn't belong to me. She rightfully belongs to Ivy000, who was kind enough to make her out of boredom for the story. Thanks and please R&R!_


	13. Chapter 12

_A/N: This…is…THE FINAL CHAPTER! This part has finally come to an end and I am gonna miss writing this (A bit of sarcasm there). Well, after this will be the epilogue and after that will be part 5! So, please enjoy and thanks again Ivy000 for Liv! More of her story will be revealed here. (I edited it to match the story; hope you don't mind…)_

**Chapter 12:**  
_Unfinished Business_

"Where do you think he is at?" asked Nick. "That's what we're gonna find out, and I know just how to do it..." I did a tight u-turn and headed back. Skipper did the same and followed me. "We need to get back to the zoo. The ITD can bring us to him..." That was when Kowalski said something that changed the whole plan.

"Actually, the ITD is not functioning at the moment. It's in the middle of some upgrades..." Upon hearing this, I screeched to a stop, nearly causing the passengers to fly out. "Say what! You've got to be joking, right?!" I said. He shook his head cautiously. "Well, how are we gonna find him now?!" I groused angrily. Then, Skipper answered.

"How about Blowhole's target tracker? He told me that it can find anyone, anywhere. Plus, he said that he has one in all his segways..." Then, my broken idea just got replaced with a new one at that suggestion. "Skipper, that's perfect! Let's go!" We then raced down back to Central Park Zoo where everyone else was.

We parked the coups just outside the gate and we went in to look for Blowhole. "Hey, they're back!" Everyone gathered around us when the kids yelled that. Murmurs of 'Who's that other otter?' and 'Is that Red?' cycled among the group. "Ok, there are two things we need. First, everyone...meet Liv, or Olivia Summers-Skye..." I said.

They all greeted her and she thanked them shyly. "Oh, she is also Red, from the story, and Marlene's cousin..." I added. "Now, the other thing we need is Blowhole's target tracker..." Blowhole then drove through the crowd. "You called?" he asked, looking down at us from his segway. "Yeah, we need your target tracker to find Parker. Do you think you can?"

"Of course..." He then pressed a button on his segway and a control panel popped up. "Ok, let's see. Parker...Platypus..." He spelt out his name and species then pressed enter. "Ok, it says here that he's in a...warehouse in New Jersey, right here..." I hopped up to his segway and checked it out for myself. "That's right beside Hoboken Zoo. Thanks..."

Blowhole nodded and we all left. Marlene, Liv and Kowalski stayed back, for 'new transfer' reasons. We all then zoomed towards Hoboken, eager to put a stop to Parker's still on-going plan. We arrived at Hoboken Zoo and looked around for the warehouse. "Over there..." Nick pointed to the east of the Hoboken Zoo. There was indeed a warehouse there, a nameless and probably abandoned warehouse.

We all made our way towards it and opened the door. "Whoa..." Indeed it was an abandoned warehouse. There were random boxes scattered everywhere, as well as rubble and debris from a possible fire that might have broken out before. Signs of anyone living here was evident, as there were lots of empty pizza boxes and empty water bottles around the place too.

We walked in slowly, for if he was there, we wanted the element of surprise. We could hear what sounded like welding below our feet, which signaled out to us that someone was below us. We got to the stairway door, which was wide open, and stealthily made our way downstairs to where all the welding noises were coming from. It was getting louder as we progressed further down.

As that was happening, Liv and Marlene were just sitting beside Kowalski, who was busy typing in a transfer form, as Liv's reason for randomly appearing in Marlene's habitat. "So, when did you run away?" Marlene asked randomly as they were getting bored. "When I was just six. I just...hid in the cargo area of a plane and it kinda took me here..." she answered.

"Well, how long have you been in New York? Were you by yourself or with someone?" Marlene continued to ask. She thought for a while. "I guess...about five years, before I was founded and took in by Malcom. And I did live with someone else, another homeless cat. I think his name was Max...Maxwell 'Mooncat' Sanders. Why he called himself Mooncat, I don't know. He found me four years after I came here. He's a pretty nice guy..." she replied.

"But, he disappeared a year later, when he was being hunted down by Malcom. I don't know what happened to him after he disappeared, but he wasn't at the pound with me, so I think he's still out there..." Liv added, looking down in disappointment. Marlene couldn't do anything but listen, as her story was very intriguing. "He was my only friend before now. Now, I have you guys. I just hope that he's alright..."

Kowalski pressed the enter key and started printing the false documents. "Ok, it's done. Oh, and did I just hear you say Mooncat just now?" Kowalski asked as he turned to face the two sitting on his right. Liv nodded. "Well, we gave him the name Mooncat, when we thought he was a cat living on the moon..." Liv laughed at the explanation. "Why would you think that?" Kowalski rubbed the back of head. "It's classified...and embarrassing..." he said simply.

Meanwhile, we were closing in on the door to the basement. The welding sound was getting louder as we inched towards the door. When Skipper grabbed the doorknob, the welding sound ceased to exist. We looked at each other in confusion, then slowly opened the door. It opened quietly, which was good. We looked inside to find a nearly finished Chronotron in the center of the room.

_"Well, that's proof he's here, but where is he now?" _They all shrugged, clueless to my question. We then crept our way toward the Chronotron to see if we can destroy it. As we got closer, I could clearly see that the most important part of the machine was still missing. _"Hey, there's no Maggufium in there..."_ I observed.

_"So?"_ whispered Ash and Gem simultaneously. _"So, he can't activate it yet, and it possibly means he went to get it..."_ I explained as we stopped at the foot of the machine. _"Uh, I don't think he left to get some..."_ Nick claimed. We turned to her only to see a test-tube of pure, unspoiled Maggufium-239 in her flippers. In reality, she had picked it up from a crate filled with the substance.

We looked around at all the crates that surrounded us. I estimated each crate to be able to carry about 50 test-tubes of this stuff, and there were around 7 crates here. 50 test-tubes times 7 crates give us 350 test-tubes of Maggufium-239. _"Holy son of a fishy herring..."_ I said. "Hello, Everetts..."

We spun around to find Parker standing on one of the crates. "Parker!" I yelled. We all took a fighting pose and he mirrored us. "So, you were the ones who messed up my original plan. Well, NOW YOUR GONNA PAY!" He took a leap at us and we all got into a dog pile. We stood up and defended ourselves from Parker's rage.

He then grabbed Ash and threw her at us, causing us to be thrown back. "I will not let you ruin this plan too!" I smirked at him as I sat up. "What are you smirking at?!" he asked angrily. "What do you get when you put spoiled Maggufium into the Chronotron?" I asked. He store confused, till I grabbed one of the test-tubes beside me and pulled off the stopper. I then spit into it and put it in the Chronotron.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Parker screamed as I turned the Chronotron on. The Maggufium was now black, showing that it was now spoiled. "Everyone get out!" I punched Parker in the face and I handcuffed him to the machine. "Except you..." I said before running off. He tried to take it off but it was locked up tight. "NOOOOOOOOO!"

We heard a deafening explosion as we jumped out of the building via the front door. The whole building came down, but not into a pile of rubble and debris, it was being sucked into a ripple in time and space, a ripple as big as a car. We held on for dear life on the asphalt when it disappeared into nothingness.

"Well, I hope that's the last we hear of Parker..." Skipper said as we got up. "Let's hope so. I guess we should head back now, huh?" I said. They all nodded and we hobbled towards the coups. "Well, now what should we do?" asked Private. "Good question. I guess I have one last thing left to say..." They looked at me and stopped. "Which is?" I just smirked and said, "Merry Christmas guys..."

_A/N: I know it's not Christmas, but in the story it is. So, I really hope you enjoyed this last, final, overtime chapter and I'll see you in the epilogue and part five of the Life With The Penguins Series!_


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue + Author's Review**  
_Life With The Penguins Part 5_

Ok everybody! We are finally done with part 4 of the Life With The Penguins Series (LWTPS) and part 5 will be coming out soon! There is already part 6 planned and there is also a little sneaky peak in part 5 about a special new character in part 6, so keep you're eyes peeled, metaphorically, not literally. (Oh, I just, JUST, got an idea for part 7! Yeah! Hint: Its genre will be horror!)

Well, as promised, I will now list out the OCs I have come up with until now. Parts 5 & 6 not included as it will spoil some things:  
-Josh Everett  
-Nick Everett  
-Ernie Jenkins  
-Ashley Carter  
-Gemma Jones  
-Hazel Young  
-Samuel Davis  
-Samantha Davis  
-George Miller (Only been mentioned)  
-Maddison Miller (Only been mentioned)  
-Caroline Bittersweet  
-Harold Goodwin (Only been mentioned)  
-Barbara Goodwin (Only been mentioned)  
-Christopher Jackson  
-Penelope Summers  
-Kaitlin Young  
-Emily Kowalska  
-Logan Goodwin  
-Amelia Carter  
-Carlos Dela Santos  
-Brandon Jones  
-Anton Martinez (Only been mentioned)  
-Olivia Martinez (Only been mentioned)  
-Olivia Summers-Skye (Belongs to Ivy000, Fanfiction)

Man, that's a lot of OCs. Anyway, here was the list I promised, so now you get to enjoy reading the summary and epilogue of Life With The Penguins part 5!

_One Sentence Summary:  
Two fellow team members had been cursed by a devious duo and the rest of the team has to embark on a black magical journey with Skipper's old team to find the cure and save them._

_Summarised from 'Meeting The Living Ghosts' chapter:  
We crawled through the crammed crawl space of the air vents till we found it. We were right above the most secure cell in the Danish Penitentiary. I kicked off the grate and it fell down to the dark depths of the room below. Ernie held on the rope while I climbed down._

_"Hello?" I asked the darkness around me. Then, two figures popped out from behind me. "Who...are you..." one of them said. He had a medium ranged voice and a very slight American accent. "I'm First Sergeant Josh, Captain Jackson's team, or more commonly known as Skipper's team. Are you..." Then, they answered me. "Master Sergeant Williamson..." said the first figure. "Second Lieutenant O'Nelly..." the second figure replied in a stern voice._

_I said to the walkie talkie to turn the lights on in that cell, and it did. It revealed the two figures as penguins, one with and eye-patch and a peg leg and the other looked almost like Kowalski, minus the hipster-looking head feather-do. The Master Sergeant replied, "You can call me Manfredi, Manfredi Williamson..." Then the other replied, "Johnson O'Nelly, or just Johnson will be fine..."_

_Author's Review Continuation:  
_So? Now you know who the two special new characters in the story! Well, hope you enjoyed that little summary, which might change cause it's just a summary! I'll see you all again in the next part of the LWTPS!

Sorry, the characters can't share their thoughts about this story at the moment, as they are currently at the POM Truth or Dare Games (The ones that do this are at the POM Truth or Dare Games, not the ones in this series...) so I'll leave it to you viewers to express what you think about this story, and even give your ideas for more parts in this series! PM them to me please; reviews are for thoughts, I guess.

Oh, here's are some well used equations fanfiction authors use:

Good Chapter + Avid Reader = 50% Chance of Happiness

Happiness = 15% Chance of Reviews + 10% Chance Of PM + 10% Chance of Author Follow/Favourite + 10% Chance of Story Follow/Favourite + 55% Chance of Nothing but a View

Helpful and Good Reviews + Great Inspiration = 96% Chance of Faster Chapters + 4% Chance of a New Story

Faster Chapters + Possible New Stories + Avid Readers = 75% Chance of Happiness

More Happiness = Higher Chances of the Things Shown Above

Get the idea? Cause it works for me! And some others. Special thanks to Ivy000 for her awesome OC, Olivia Summers-Skye!


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